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PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 



^ ■ JO. 



OF THE 



PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL AECHITECTURE. 



^r'' 



By henry BARNARD, 

SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS IN CONNECTICUT. 



H ARTF ORD: 

PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY. 
1851. 






CIRCULAR 



In his Annual Report to the General Assembly, May Session, 1850, the 
undersigned expressed his intention to prepare and issue a series of Tracts or 
Essays on the most important topics of school improvement, for general dis- 
semination among parents, school otficers, and teachers. Among the subjects 
specified, (^Report for 1850, p. 77;) was the following : 

'•' Practical Hints for the Construction and internal Arrangements of School- 
houses. 

" Public attention is already aroused in many districts, to the evils and incon- 
veniences of the old, dilapidated, and unventilated structures now occupied by 
the schools, and the relations which a good school-house bears to a good school, 
and it is proposed to aid the efibrts which may be put forth in such districts by 
circulating a pamphlet, in which practical hints and approved plans for struc- 
tures of this kind shall be set forth, and builders and committees be referred to 
such buildings as have been recently erected in this and other states, which can 
be safely designated as models," 

The following pages were prepared originally for this purpose, by selections, 
with some modifications, from a larger work on School Architecture. The 
Essay thus prepared, was subsequently adopted by a Committee appointed to 
report on the same subject, to the National Convention of the Friends of Pub- 
lic Education, held in Philadelphia, on the '23d, 24th, and 25th of August, 1850, 
as embodying substantially their views. The Report of this Committee is here- 
with published for the historical information contained therein. 



Hartford, November 1, 1850. 



HENRY BARNARD, 

Superintendent of Common Schools. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
PREFACE. 

Report of Committee on School-bouses to 
the National Convention of the Friends 
of Education in 1850, ------ 7 

SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

I. Common Errors to be avoided. 

Extracts from Official School Documents, 
showing the condition of School-houses in 
Connecticut, --------- 12 

Massachusetts, ------- 22 

New York, ---------24 

New Hampshire, --------2.5 

Vermont, ------.-.-26 

Maine, ----------- 26 

Michigan, ---------- 27 

New England generally, ----- 28 

II. General Principles to be observed. 

1. Site. 2. Yard. 3. Size of Building. 4. 
Size of School-room. 5. Class-room. 6. 
Light. 7. Warming. 8. Ventilation. 9. 
Desk. 10. Seats. II. Aisles. 12. Ac- 
commodation for Teacher. 13. Library 
and Apparatus. 14. External appearance. 
15. Residence for Teacher. 16. Privies. 
17. Gymnastic and CaHsthenic Exercises, 29 

Principles of Ventilation applied to School- 
rooms and Public Halls generally, - 31 

ni. Plans of School-houses. 
Circumstances to be regarded in deciding on 
a Plan, ----------..34 

General Explanation, - - - - _ 35 

Plans of ScHooL-HorsEs with one School- 
room. 
District Schools, — General condition, - - 36 
Infant and Primary Schools, do. - - - 35 
Requisites of Play-ground for Infant and 
Primarj' Schools, -------.40 

Illustrations, 
Play-ground for Infant or Primary 

School, --------.-39 

Climbing Stand, --------40 

Horizontal Bars, ------.-40 

Parallel Bars, ------.--41 

Wooden Swing, --------41 

Double Inclined Plane, ------ 41 

Rotary Swing, ------__42 

Infant or Primary School-room, - - - 43 
Illustration, 
Infant School-room by AVilderspin, - - 45 



Plan of District School-house, (Glocester, R 
I.) 30 feet by 20, for 36 scholars, with a seat 
and desk for two scholars; Wood, Cost 
S.500, --------.... 44 

Illustrations, 
Front elevation, -------.44 

Section of Mott's Ventilatin? Stove, - 44 
Section showing mode of warming and 
ventilation, ------°.-45 

Ground Plan, ------.-.45 

Plan of District School-house. (Wind--or, 
Conn.) 33 feet bv 22, for 36 scholars, with 
seat and desk to eacli ; Brick, Cost £800 to 
01000, ----------.- 4« 

Illustrations, 
Perspective, --._.-.__ 45 
Ground Plan, -----....47 

Section of Seat and Desk, - - - - 47 

Top of Desk, --------.47 

Profile of Range of Seats and Desks, - 4? 
Plan of District School-house, (Barrin?ton,R. 
I.) 40 feet by 25, for 64 pupils, wilh seat 
and desk, each for two scholars; Wood, 
CostaiOOO, --------.' 43 

Illustrations, 
Perspective, --------.48 

Seat and Desk, with iron standards, - 48 
Ground Plan, --------.49 

Plan of School-house 24 feet by 28, for 48 
scholars, with 12 single seats and desks, and 
18 seats and desks for two, recommended by 
G. B. Emerson, --------50 

Illustrations, 
Ground Plan, ---------51 

Plan of School-house, 51 feet by 31, for 120 
scholars, with class-room in attic, over 
entry, by G. B. Emerson, ----- . 50 

Illustrations, 
Groiind Plan, ------ --51 

Sections of Double Fire-place, - - - 144 
Section of Ventilating Flue, - - - - 145 

Plan of School-house for 56 scholars, with 
desk and seat for each pupil, by Horace 

Mann, - . 51 

Illiistrations, 

Ground Plan, ---------51 

Seat and Desk, -----.-. 47 

Plan of Union District for Graded 

Schools, ----------51 

Plan of School-house, 50 feet by 30, for 106 
scholars, with Mott's Schoof-chair, and a 
recitation-room ; Wood, £!ost from SIOOO 
to $1200, ., 52 



CONTENTS. 



65 



Page. 
lUustrations, 

GroQDdPlan, --S 

Mott's Desk and Chair, - 97 

j^n of School-hoDse, 26 feet by 40, for 76 
scholars, each with Mott's chair, bv Ira 
Mayhew, - - - - . - ' - - 52 

JUustraiian^ 

Groand Plan, 52 | 

Pian of School-houss, 40 feet bv 28. for 56 j 

scholars, with desks and seats for tnro pa- ! 

pils, separated by partition from floor to 
top of desk, ----------53 

lUtLStrations, 

Groand Plan, - -------53 

Range of Seats and Desks, - - - - 129 

Plan of School-honse, 36 feet by 26, for 60 \ 

scholars, with seat and desk for two, bv 
A. D. Lord, ---------- 53 

Hiu-stration, 

Groand Plan, ----53 

Plan of District School-honse, 56 feet by 30, 
(Greenland, N. H.) for 48 pupils, with sep- 
arate desks and seats, -------54 

Illustration, 

Groand Plan, ---------54 

Fi.AKS OF School-houses with two of. xore 

SCHOOL-EOOXS. 

General Principles of Gradation or Classifi- 
cation of Schools, -------- 295 

Plan of School-hoase, (Centerdale. R. I.) 51 
feet by 26, for two Schook : primary with 
60 pupils, and secoadarv with 64 seats ; 

Wood, Cost $1500, - -' 

lUustrations, 

Front Elevation, --- 

Ground Plan, --- 

Plan of School-honse, (Arsenal District, 
Hartford,] as originally drawn for a Pri- 
mary and Secoi^&rf Department : Brick, 
estimated Cost, ahet original design, 

^300, 

EiustratioKS, 

Side Ekvation, -------- 

Groand Plan of Secondary Department 
only, ----------- 

Front JEDevation, as built, - - - - - 

Plan of Village School-house, (Washington 

Village, R," L,) with two Departments, 

separated by sJidin? doors; Wood, Coat 

52,100, 

lUustratxtTK, 

Groand Plan, --------- 

Village School-house desijned bv Kendal: 
Cost $750, ----"--'.--- 

lUusirctitms, 
Perspective, --------- 

Ground Plan, --------- 

Union School-house in Woonsocket, E. I. : 

Wood, Cost ^,000, 

Illustrations, 
Front Elevation, -------- 

Side Elevation, -------- 

Union School-hoase in ChepacheL R. I. : 

Wood. Cost $2,500, - 

Illustrations. 

Plan of First Floor, 

Plan of Second Floor, 

Plans of School-houses for Schools of differ- 
ent grades, m Providence, R, L, - . - 
Primary School-houses, ------- 

lUustrations, 
Perspective of a Primary Scbool-hoose, 
Ground Plan. --------- 

Tops of desks for two puoils, - - . - 
Section of seat and desk for two pupils. 



70 



PaG2. 

Intermediate School-houses. ----- 74 

lUustrations, 

Perspective of Intermediate School-house, 75 

Section of Ventilators, ------ 74 

Internal arrangement ------ 76 

Section of Writing Desk and Seat, - - . • 

Grammar School-house, - - 7S 

lUmstratioHS, 

Perspective of Grammar School-house, 79 

Plan of Yard, Basement, &c. do. - - SO 

First Floor, Primary and Intermediate 

Schools. ---'------- 81 

Second Floor, Grammar School - - - 82 

Section, ---------- 83 

High School-house, ---_-. -S4 

lUustrations, 
Perspective, -----.---85 

Basement, ----------56 

First Floor, --------- 87 

Second Floor, ---------87 

Movable Seat and Desk for two, - - 88 
Vertical Section of Furnace, - - - - 8B 

Alterations in plans of Grammar and Inter- 
mediate houses, ---------89 

lUustrations, 
Front Elevation of Intermediate School- 
house, ---.-_-._- 59 

Perspective of Kingsbury's Seminary, - 90 
Plan of Public School-house in Warren, R. L, 90 

lUustrations, 
Perspective, ---------91 

Plan of Yards, Basement, &c.. - - - 92 
First Floor, --------- 93 

Second Floor, ----93 

Perspective of Village School-houses, - 94 
Ingraham Primary School -house, Boston, - 94 

lUustrations, 
Play-ground and First Floor, - - - - 95 
Internal arraneemeats. Second Floor. - 97 

Third Floor, " - - 98 

Primarv School Chair. ------ 99 

View o'f Front Wall, ------ 99 

Section of Smoke Flues, ----- 100 

Section of Ventiducte, ------ 102 

Section and Position of Flues and Venti- 
ducts, ----------- 101 

Ventilation, &c. of Privies, - - - -104 

Plan of Bowdoin Grammar School-faocse, - 106 

lUustrations, 
First and Second Floor, ----- 107 

Third Floor, - - - 107 

Plan of Hartford High School-house, - - - 108 

Illustrations, 
Plan of Yard and Baseaiect. - - - - 112 

First F.oor, - - - - H] 

Second Floor, --------- m 

Section showing Ventilation, &c., - - 112 
Seat and Desk, -------- 112 

Plan of Putnam Free School-house, - - - 113 

lUustrations, 
First Floor, --------- 114 

SecoEd Floor, ------- - 115 

Plan of Free Academy Building in Xew York. 

lUustration, 
Perspective of New York Free -\ccdemy. 116 
Plan of Academy Building in Rome, N. Y^ 117 

lUustrations. 
Perspective, ---------] I8 

First Floor. - - 113 

Second Floor, --------- 113 

Seat and Desk, 119 

Teachers* Desk, - - - 119 

Kneeler Hall Training School in England, - 120 

Illustration, 
Perspective, ---------120 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
General Principles for the Organization of 
Public High Schools, - 121 

School Furniture. 
Illustratimis, 
Desk and Seat (wood,) attached, for one 

scholar, ----- --__-47 

Desk and Seat (wood,) attached, for two 

scholars, ----------74 

Desk and Seat with cast iron ends for one 

or two, ----------48 

Boston Latin School Desk and Chair, - 129 
Providence Grammar School Chair, - - 77 
Providence High School, ----- 88 

Mott's Revolving Pivot Chair, - - - 130 

Wales' Improved School Furniture, 

No. 1. American School Chairs, - - 132 

2. do. with desk for two pupils, 132 

3. do. do. one jjupil, 132 

4. New England School Chairs, - 133 

5. do. with desk for two pupils, 133 

6. do. do. one pupil, 134 

7. Bowdoin School Chairs, - - 134 

8. do. vvith desk for two, - 134 

9. do. do. one, - 135 

10. Washington School Chair, - - 135 

11. do. with desk for two pupils, 135 

12. do. do. one pupil, 136 

13. Normal School Desk and Chair 

for two, ------- 136 

14. Normal School Desk and Chair 

for one, ------- 136 

15. Improved Writing Stools, - - 137 

16. Primary School Chair, - - - 137 

17. Basket Primary School Chair, 137 

18. Improved Settees, ----- 138 

19. Improved Lyceum Settees, - - 138 

20. Teachers' Arm Chair, - - - 138 

21. do. do. with cushions, 139 

22. Teachers' Table without drawers, 139 

23. do. do. with one drawer, 139 

24. do. do. with two drawers, 139 

25. Movable Skeleton Desk, - - 140 

26. do. Portable Desk, - - - 140 

27. Teachers' Desk, ----- 140 

28. do. with drawers and table top, 140 

29. do. do. and top desk, 140 

30. do. two drawers and table top, 141 

31. do. do. and top desk, 141 

32. do. four drawers and table top, 141 

33. do. do. and top desk, 141 

34. do. six drawers and table top, 142 

35. do. do. and top desk, 142 

36. do. with book-case in front, 142 

37. do. do. do. 143 

38. do. do. do. 143 

39. Teachers' Desk, with book-case, 

drawers, &c. ------ 143 

Ross' Improved School Chair and Desk, 127 

Albany Normal School Chair and Desk, 111 

Range of Seats and Desks, - - - - 129 

Gallery for Primary or Infant Schools, 128 

Sand Desk for do. - - - 128 

Primary School Chair, Boston, - - - 129 

" " Mott's, - - - 130 

" " '* Wales', - - - 135 



Page. 
Hartford School Desk and Chair, - - - 131 
Dosks for Teachers, -------- 12? 

Apparatus for Warming and Ventilation. 

General Principles, ---------31 

Illustrations, 
Double Fire-place for wood, - - - - 146 

Open Stove, with air chamber, Chilson, 147 
Grate, with air chamber, for coal, do. - 147 
Millar's Ventilating Stove, for wood, 147 
Mott's Ventilating Stove, for wood, - 146 
Boston Ventilating Stove, for coal, Clark, 147 
Providence Furnace, ------ 88 

Chilson's, " ------- 148 

Culver's, " ------- 150 

Bushnell's, " - - - - - 149 

Mode of admitting fresh air to be 

warmed, - - - - - - -45,52,102 

Ventiducts for discharging impure air, - 74 
Mode of packing Ventiducts, for two or 

more stories, - - - ----- 183 

Mode of packing Smoke-flues, for two or 

more stories, -------- 182 

Registers to control openings for escape 

of air, ----_-_--_ 74 
Ventilation of Privies, ------ 104 

Apparatus. 

Arrangements for Apparatus, ----- 151 

List of articles indispensable in every school, 152 
List of articles for Primary and District 

School, ----------- 152 

List of articles for Grammar School, - - 158 

Hints for making Blackboards, - - . - 153 

" " Black Plaster-wall, - - 155 

" " Crayons, ------ 155 

Illustrations, 

Movable Lesson Post, ------ 152 

Gonigraph, --------- 15~ 

Arithmeticon, -------- 157 

Allen's Education Table, 156 

Movable Blackboard, ------ 155 

Library. 

Arrangements for a School Library, - - 159 

Care and Preservation of School-houses. 

Rules for the Care and Preservation of 
School-houses, --------- 161 

Practical Hints respecting Ventilation, Fires, 
Sweeping and Dusting, ------ 162 

Regulations of Chauncy Hall School, Boston, 164 
Remarks of Mr. Thayer, ----- 164 

Dedicatory Exercises. 

Openingof new School-house in Salem, - 164 
Address of G. B. Emerson and G. Thayer, - 164 
Dedication of High School-house in Cain- 
bridge, ---------- 173 

llemarks of President Everett, - - - 173 



PREFACE 



At the National Convention of the Friends of Pubhc Education, held 
in Philadelphia, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of October, 1849, and of which 
Hon. Horace Mann was President, Prof James Henry, Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution in Washington City, Hon. Elisha R. Potter, 
Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island, and Greer B. Duncan, 
Esq. of New Orleans, were appointed a Committee to report to the next 
Convention on the subject of School Architecture, including the location, 
size, ventilation, warming, and furniture of buildings intended for educa- 
tional purposes. At the second Convention held in Philadelphia, on the 
23d, 24th, and 25th of August, 1850, and of which Rev. Dr. Nott, of Union 
College, was President, the following Report, prepared by Mr. Potter, of 
Rhode Island, was submitted by Prof Henry, with some introductory re- 
marks on the general subject of American Architecture. The Report 
was ordered to be printed with the Proceedings of the Convention. 

REPORT, 

The subject of School Architecture has not, till within a comparatively 
recent period, received that attention from the public generally, or from 
practical educators in particular, which its important bearings, direct and 
indirect, on the health, manners, morals, and intellectual progress of chil- 
dren, and on the health and success of the teacher, both in government 
and instruction, demand. The earliest publication on the subject in this 
country, which has met the notice of the Committee, may be found in the 
School Magazine, No. 1, published as an Appendage to the Journal of 
Education, in April, 1829'. In 1830, Mr. W. J. Adams, of New York, de- 
livered a lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, " on School 
houses and School Apparatus,^^ which was -pubHshed in the first volume of 
the transactions of that association. Stimulated by that lecture, the Di- 
rectors of the Institute in the following year offered a premium of twenty 
dollars for the best " Essay on the Construction of School-houses." The 
premium was awarded by a committee of the Institute to the Essay by 
Dr. William A. Alcott, of Hartford, Conn., now residing in West New- 
ton, Mass. This " Prize Essay" was published in the second annual 
volume of lectures before the Institute, as well as in a pamphlet, and 
was widely circulated and read all over the country. In 1833, the Essex 
County Teachers' Association published a " Report on School-houses" 
prepared by Rev. G. B. Perry, which is a searching and vigorous ex- 
posure of the evils resulting from the defective construction and arrange- 



8 PREFACE. 

ment of School-houses. From tliis time the subject began to attract 
pubhc attention, and improvements were made in the construction ajid 
furniture of school-rooms, especially in large cities and villages. 

In 1S3S. Hon. Horace Mann submitted a ''■ Report on School-houses." as 
supplementary to his First Armual Report as Secretar}* of the Board of 
Education in Massachusetts, in which the whole subject and especially 
that of ventilation, is discussed with great fullness and abiht}'. This Re- 
port was widely circulated in a pamphlet form, and in the various educa- 
tional periodicals of the country-, and gave a powerful impulse to improve- 
ment in this department, not only in Massachusetts, bat in other states. 
In the same year. Hon. Henry Barnard prepared an •'• Essay on School 
Architecture'' in which he embodied the results of much obser^-ation, 
experience and reflection, in a manner so systematic and practical £is to 
meet the wants of all who may have occasion to superintend the erection, 
alteration, or furnishing of School-houses. This Essay was originally 
prepared and dehvered as a lecture in the course of his official visits to. 
different towns of Connecticut as Secretary of the Board of Commis- 
sioners of Common Schools. It was first published in 1541. in the Con- 
necticut Common School Journal, and in 1S42 was submitted, with some 
modifications and nimierous illustrations, as a Repoi^t on School-houses, to 
the Legislature. It may be mentioned as an evidence of the low apprecia- 
tion in which the whole subject was regarded at that time, in a State which 
prides herseh' on the condition of her common schools, and on the liberality 
with which her system of public education is endowed, that the Joint 
Standing Committee on Education, on the part of the Senate and House, 
refused to recommend the pubhcation of this Essay, although it is by far 
the most thorough, systematic and practical discussion of the subject 
which has appeared in this countr}" or in Europe. And it was only 
through the strenuous eflbrts of a few intelhgent friends of school improve- 
ments that its publication was secured, and then, only on condition that 
the author should bear the expense of the wood-cuts by which it was 
illustrated, and a portion of the bill for printing. Since its first pubhca- 
tion more than one hundred thousand copies of the original Essay have 
been printed in various forms and distributed in different states, without 
any pecuniary advantage to the author. 

in 1542. George B. Emerson. Esq.. in Part Second of the School and 
Schoolmaster, devoted a chapter to - The School-house.** in which sound 
and practical views of the location, size, and ventilation and wanning of 
edifices tor school purposes, are presented and illustrated by appropriate 
cuts. A copy of this valuable work was presented to each of the 11.000 
school districts in the State of Xew York, and each of the 3.400 districts 
in Massachusetts. In 1546. Xathan Bishop. Esq.. Superintendent of 
Public Schools in the Cit\- of Providence, pubhshed a Report on the 
School-houses of that city, with numerous wood-cuts illustrative of the 
peculiarities of the furniture and internal arrangements of the buildings 
devoted to each grade of school. These houses were constructed after an 
examination of the latest improvements which had been introduced in the 
School-houses of Boston, Salem, and other large cities and villages in 
Massachusetts, and have been much consulted by committees and build- 
ers as models. 

In 1S4S. Mr. Barnard republished his Essay, with plans and descrip- 
tions of numerous School-houses which had been erected under his direc- 
tion, in Rhode Island and Connecticut and including by permission all of 
the plans of any value, which had been published by Mr. Mann. Mr. 
Emerson. Mr. Bishop, and other laborers In this field —with the title of 
'•School Architecture, or Contributions to the Improvement of School- 
houses in the United States.'' As the title conveys a very inadequate 
view of the fullness and completeness of this valuable work, the Committee 



PREFACE. g 

feel that they can not better promote the object of their appointment than 
by calling the attention of the Convention to the general views with 
which the subject was approached by this Author, and to the table of 
contents which will be found appended to the extracts which we have 
been permitted to make from this volume. 

" The subject was forced on the attention of the author in the very out- 
set of his labors in the field of pubhc education. Go where he would, in 
city or country, he encountered the district School-house, standing in dis- 
graceful contrast with every other structure designed for pubhc or domes- 
tic use. Its location, construction, furniture and arrangements, seemed 
intended to hinder, and not promote, to defeat and not perfect, the work 
which was to be carried on within and without its walls. The attention 
of parents and school officers was early and earnestly called to the close 
connection between a good school-house and a good school, and to the 
great principle, that to make an edifice good for school purposes, it should 
be built for children at school, and their teachers ; for children differing in 
age, sex, size, and studies, and therefore requiring different accommoda- 
tions ; for children engaged sometimes in study and sometimes in recita- 
tion ; for children whose health and success in study require that they 
shall be frequently, and every day, in the open air, for exercise and rec- 
reation, and at all times supplied with pure air to breathe ; for children 
who are to occupy it in the hot days of summer, and the cold days of 
winter, and to occupy it for periods of time in different parts of the day, in 
positions which become wearisome, if the seats are not in all respects com- 
fortable, and w^iich may affect symmetry of form and length of life, if the 
construction and lelative heights of the seats and desks which they occu- 
py are not properly attended to ; for children whose manners and morals, 
whose habits of order, cleanliness and punctuality, — whose temper, love 
of study, and of the school, are in no inconsiderable degree affected by 
the attractive or repulsive location and appearance, the inexpensive out- 
door arrangements, and the internal construction of the place where they 
spend or should spend a large part of the most impressible period of their 
hves. This place, too, it should be borne in mind, is to be occupied. by a 
teacher w^hose own health and daily happiness are affected by most of the 
various circumstances above alluded to, and whose best plans of order, 
classification, discipline and recitation, may be utterly baffled, or greatly 
promoted, by the manner in which the School-house may be located, 
lighted, warmed, ventilated and seated. With these general views of 
school architecture, this essay was originally written." 
The v^olume will be found on examination to contain: 

1. An exposition, from official documents, of common errors in the loca- 
tion, construction, and furniture of School-houses as they have been here- 
tofore almost universally built, even in states where the subject of edu- 
cation has received the most attention. 

2. A discussion of the purposes to be answered, and the principles to be 
observed, in structures of this kind. 

3. Descriptions of a variety of plans, adapted to schools of every grade, 
from the Infant School to the Normal School, in a variety of styles, hav- 
ing a Gothic, Elizabethan, or classic character, and on a large or small 
scale of expense 5 either recommended by experienced educators, or fol- 
lowed in buildings recently erected in this country or in Europe. 

4. Numerous illustrations of the most approved modes of constructing 
and arranging seats and desks, and of all recent improvements in appa- 
ratus for warming and ventilating school-rooms and public halls generally. 

5. A catalogue of maps, globes, and other means of visible illustra- 
tion, with which each grade of school should be furnished, with the price, 
and place w^here the several articles can be purchased. 

6. A list of bookS; with an index or table of contents to the most impor- 



10 PREFACE. 

tant volumes on education, schools, school systems, and methods of teach- 
ing, suitable lor school libraries, with reference to catalogues irom which 
village hbraries may be selected. 

7. Rules and regulations for the care and preservation of School-houses, 
grounds, and turniture. 

S. Examples of exercises suitable to the dedication of School-houses to 
the sacred purposes of education. 

9. A variety of hints respecting the classification of schools. 

It will not be necessary to specify further the official reports and peri- 
odicals in which the subject has been discussed within a few years past, 
or to mention in detail the various improvements which have been intro- 
duced in the construction of school furniture, and in modes of ventilation 
and warming. Most of the plans which have been brought before the 
public, and which have been found on trial to be valuable contributions to 
plans before published, are embodied in the recent editions of Mr. Barnard's 
work. In conclusion, the Committee beg leave to present the following 
summary* of the Principles of School Architecture, which the author of 
that work has drawn up at their request as presenting the result of his 
observations and practical knowledge in this department of educational 
improvement. He has also placed at the disposal of the Committee nu- 
merous plans for schools of different grades, selected from his book, or 
prepared for subsequent editions, which are herewith communicated as a 
part of this Report 

Philadelphia, Aug: 23,. 1S50. 

• The summary referred to, win be found on page 29. 



PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF THE 

PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



In treating of School ArcMtecture, it will be convenient to pre- 
sent — 

I. Common Errors to be avoided. 
II. General Principles to be observed. 

Ill Plans and directions for erecting and fitting up school-houses 
adapted to the varying circumstances of country and city, of a 
small, and a large number of scholars, of schools of different 
grades and of different systems of instruction. 

I. COMMON ERRORS IN SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Under this head it will be sufficient to enumerate the principal 
features of school-houses as they are. 

They are, almost universally, badly located, exposed to the noise, 
dust and danger of the highway, unattractive, if not positively repul- 
sive in their external and internal appearance, and built at the least 
possible expense of material and labor. 

They are too small. There is no separate entry for boys and girls 
appropriately fitted up ; no sufficient space for the convenient seating 
and necessary movements of the scholars ; no platform, desk, or re- 
citation room for the teacher. 

They are badly lighted. The windows are inserted on three or 
four sides of the room, without blinds or curtains to prevent the in- 
convenience and danger from cross-lights, and the excess of light 
falling directly on the eyes or reflected from the book, and the dis- 
tracting influence of passing objects and events out of doors. 

They are not properly ventilated. The purity of the atmosphere 
i-s not preserved by providing for the escape of such portions of the 
air as have become offensive and poisonous by the process of breath- 
ing, and by the matter which is constantly escaping from the lungs 
in vapor, and from the surface of the body in insensible perspiration. 

They are imperfectly warmed. The rush, of cold air through 
cracks and defects in the doors, windows, floor and plastering is not 
guarded against. The air which is heated is already impure from 
having been breathed, and made more so by noxious gases arising 
from the burning of floating particles of vegetable and animal matter 
eoming in contact with the hot iron. The heat is not equally dif- 



12 SCHOOL ARCniTECTUILE. 

fused, so that one portion of a school-room is frequently overheated, 
while another portion, especially the floor, is too cold. 

They are not furnished with seats and desks, properly made and 
adjusted to each other, and arraneed in such a manner as to promote 
the comtbrt and convenience of the scholars, and the easy supervision 
on the part of the teacher. The seats are too high and too long, with 
no suit^ible support for the back, and especially for the younger chil- 
dren. The desks are too high for the seats, and are either attached 
to the waU on three sides of the room, so that the faces of the schol- 
ars are turned from the teacher, and a portion of them at least are 
tempted constantly to look out at the windows,^-or the seats are at- 
tached to the wall on opposite sides, and the scholars sit facing each 
other. The aisles are not so arranged that each scholar can go to 
and from his seat, change his position, have access to his books, at- 
tend to his own business, be seen and approached by the teacher, 
without incommoding any other. 

They are not provided with blackboards, maps, clock, thermometer, 
and other apparatus and fixtures which are indispensable to a well 
regulated and instructed school. 

They are deficient in all of those in and out-door arrangements 
which help to promote habits of order, and neatness, and cultivate 
delicacy of manners and refinement of feeling. There are no ver- 
dure, trees, shi-ubbery and flowers for the eye, no scrapers and mats 
for the feet, no hooks and shelves for cloaks and hats, no well, no 
sink, basin and towels to secure cleanhness, and no places of retire- 
ment for children of either sex, when performing the most private 
offices of nature. 

Lest the author should be thought to exaggerate the deficiencies of 
school-houses as they have been heretofore constructed, and as they are 
now almost universally found wherever pubHc attention has not been 
earnestly, persevering! y. and judiciously caUed to their improvement the 
following extracts from recent official school documents are inserted, re- 
specting the condition of school-houses in states where pubUc education 
has received the most attention. 

CONNECTICUT. 
'EsTP.ACT from the '' First Annual Befjort of the Secretary of the Board 
of Commissioners of Common Schools for 1838-39. 
*'• In the whole field of school improvement there is no more pressing 
need of immediate action tlian here. I present with much hesitatioii, 
the result of my examinations as to several hundred school-houses in dil- 
ferent parts of the State. I will say. generally, that the location of the 
school-house, instead of being retired, shaded, healthy, attractive, is in 
some cases decidedly uohealthy. exposed freely to the sun and storm, and 
in nearly all. on one or more public streets, where the passmg of objects. 
the noise and the dust are a perpetual annoyance to teacher and scholar. 
— ^that no play-ground is afibrded for the scholar except the highway. — 
that the size is^oo .small for even the average attendance of the scholars, 
— that not one in a hundred has any other provision for a con-stant supply 
of that indispensable element of health and life, pure air. except the 
rents and cre\-ices which time and wanton mischief have made j that the 



SCHOOL HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 13 

seats and desks are not, in amajority of cases, adapted to children of different 
sizes and ages, but on the other hand are calculated to induce physical 
deformity, and ill-health, and not in a few instances (I state this on the 
authority of physicians who were professionally acquainted with the 
cases,) have actually resulted in this— and that in the mode of warming 
rooms, sufficient regard is not had either to the comfort and health of the 
scholar, or to economy. 

That 1 have not stated these deficiencies too strongly, I beg leave to 
refer you to the accompanying returns, respecting the condition of school- 
houses in more than eight hundred districts in the State, and in more 
than forty particulars in each. These returns were made from actual 
inspection and measurement of school-houses by teachers and others. 
An abstract of them in part will be found annexed, together with ex- 
tracts from letters received from school officers on the subject. I might 
accumulate evidence of the necessity of improvement here for every 
district in the State. Without improvement in many particulars which 
concern the health, the manners and morals of those who attend school, 
it is in vain to expect that parents who put a proper estimate, not only 
on the intellectual, but the physical and moral culture of their children, 
will send to the district school. 

The following extracts are taken from official documents. pubHshed in 
1846 and 1847, and fair specimens of the manner in which school-houses 
are spoken of, in the reports of local committees, from different parts of 
the State. 

" In one district the school-house stands on the highway, -with eighty 
pupils enrolled as in attendance, in a room nineteen and a half feet 
square, without any outbuildings of any kind. 

In another in the same town, the school-house is less than seven feet 
high, and the narrow slab seats are twenty-one inches high, (four inches 
higher than ordinary chairs.) The walls, desks, &c., are cut and marked 
with all sorts of images, some of which would make heathens blush. 

In another, the room is fourteen feet square, and six feet five inches 
Iiigh. The walls are very black." 

" In this town there is one of the most venerable school servants in the 
State. The room is small, and less than seven feet high. Slab seats 
extend around three sides of the room, and are too high for men. The 
skill of several generations must have been expended in illustrating the 
walls with lamp smoke and coal images. The crevices of the floor will 
admit any quantity of cold air. The door sill and part of the house 
sill have rotted away. The day I visited it, the teacher and pupils were 
huddled around the stove." 

" In one district, the house stands near the travelled road, is low and 
small, being only seventeen feet by seventeen, and seven feet ^two 
mches high, for the accommodation of sixty or seventy pupils. The 
seats on the outside are from seventeen to eighteen inches. The 
walls, door, and sides of the house are disfigured with obscene images." 

" There are only three good school-houses in the society ; only three 
that have any out-houses. The rest of the school-houses are in a miser- 
able condition. One is thirty-five or forty years old. Most of them 
have only slab seats, with the legs sticking through, upwards, like 
hatchel-teeth, and high enough to keep the legs of the occupants swing- 
ing. They are as uncomfortable to little children as a pillory. Seats 
and desks are adorned with every embelHshment that the ingenuity of 
professional whittlers can devise." ♦ 



I 4 SCHOOL-HOrSES AS THEY AKE. 

" Two of our school-houses, those in the two lar^st districts, are in a 
bad condition, old. unpainted and inconvenient. They are built and con 
stnicted inside on the old Connecticut plan. Only one row of desks, and 
that fastened to the wall of the school-roonL running quite around it ; 
and long fonns, without backs to rest on. the scholars sitting with their 
backs to the centre of the room. The other two are in better condition, 
though one is constructed on the same plan as above. The out-buildings 
are in bad condition generally. One school-house has no out-buildi^ 
nor wood-house. One school-house only is painted, outside." 

" Of the nine school-houses in ibis society, not one is really what ttiey 
all ought to be. for the morals, health, and intellectual improvement of 
the pupils. Four of them are considered tolerably good, having one out- 
building, the other five are hardly peissable. The desks in most or all of 
them are where they never ought to be. against the sides of the room 
and against one end! and with few exceptions, all of a height, with poor 
accommodations for loose clothes, hats. &c..: aU located on or near some 
highway : no play-ground attached to any of them, except the highway.-' 

•• A part of our school-houses are comfortable buildings, but destitute of 
every thing like taste or ornament in the grounds, structure, or the furni- 
ture of the rooms. Being generally built in the pubhc highway or close 
by its side, they are. one and alL without enclosures, ornamental or shade 
trees. But the want of ornament is by no means the greatest defect of 
our school-houses : a majority of them are not convenient Although 
there has been some improvement in those recently built, yet they are not 
so good as would be desirable. The out-buildings in too many cases are 
in a neglected condition, and in some districts are not provided at alL in- 
dicating an unpardonable neglect on the part of parents and guardians."' — 
£ast J}indsor. 

'• It appears that a great proportion of the school-houses are in a sad 
condition and of bad architecture. Architectaral drawings should, there- 
fore, be scattered over the state, so that in the buildings to be erected 
those abominations may be avoided which are now so abundanL'- — Glas- 
tenbury. 

'• The internal construction of most of our school-houses is bad. and occa- 
sions great inconvenience and hindrance to the prosperity of our schools. 
Let as much be done as can be. to remove those miserable prison-houses 
for our children, and in their stead let there be good, large, and conven- 
ient a^hool-houses." — Sii^eld. 2d. 

^ None of our school-houses have play-grounds attached ; the] 
stand in the highway, and some on a corner where several roaf 
Bethany. 

" Another evil is the poor. cold, inconvenient and gloomy school-houses 
which we find in many districts. There is one in this society not more 
attractive than a bam. for comfort and accommodation in a cold day : the 
best I can say about it is, it is thoroughly ventilated." — Lebanon. 4th. 

" The houses and the internal arrangement are inconvenient : a slanting 
board the whole length of the house for a desk, and a slab-board for a seat 
so high that the scholEirs cannot reach the floor with their feet constitute 
the conveniences of half of the schools in this society." — Easton. 

'"'• AVe see many a school-house which looks more Hke some gloomy, 
dilapidated prisoa designed for the detention and punishment of some 
desperate culprit than a place designed for the intellectual training of the 
children of an eohghtened and prosperous nation. Instead of being ren- 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. J 5 

dered pleasant and attractive to the youthful mind, they are almost as 
cold and cheerless as an Indian wigwam." — Chaplin. 

" Many of our school-houses are in a miserable condition, possessing less 
attractions outwardly than our prisons, while within they are dark, 
gloomy and comfortless. They are all destitute of an appearance of any 
out-house." — Warren. 

" The general plan of all the school-houses is the same. Writing desks 
are placed around the room against the walls ; these are generally so 
high that it would be inconvenient for adults, much more for children to 
use them. The seats stand in front of these, so that the pupil has his 
option to sit with his face or his back to the teacher. In the former case, 
he has the edge of the writing desk to support his back ; in the latter, 
nothing. An arrangement like this is the worst possible. Of the five 
school-houses in the society, two may be warmed so as to be comfortable 
at all times ; a third needs nothing but a good stove ; but the remaining 
two cannot be made fit for a school to occupy without thorough repairs. 
There is but one out-building of any kind connected with the school- 
houses of this society, and this is entirely unfit for use." — Winchester. 

" Throughout Middlesex county the school-houses, taken as a whole, are 
several degrees below respectability — rarely ever painted within or with- 
out, and if painted at all, they ever afterward show a worn and weather- 
beaten coat, like the half starved, half clothed outcast of society. Yet 
these houses are owned by the pubhc, worth its tens of thousands, and 
they groan grievously if a small tax is levied to improve them. Of the 
four locations of school-houses in this town, not one has sufficient land for 
a private dwelling, and all the land combined would be less than an acre. 
One stands wholly on the highway ; another stands on a bleak and rocky 
elevation, and during some portions of the winter, almost inaccessible. 
This location was chosen probably because it was cheaper than the 
pleasant field on the opposite side of the way. Why should the pubhc 
school-house which accommodates from thirty to fifty pupils, ten and 
eleven months in the year, five and a half days of each week, not require 
as much land as a church or private dwelhng?" — Chester. 

" Our school-houses are not what they ought to be either in their loca- 
tion or construction. In their location ihey are generally found upon some 
barren knoll, or too near the highway, forming part of the fence between 
the highway and the adjoining proprietor, alike destitute of ornament or 
shade calculated to render them pleasing or attractive. The desks are 
almost always too high and continuous, instead of single, nor is there 
generally a gradation in reference to the size of the scholar. Few school- 
rooms are well ventilated ; not more than one or two properly or health- 
fully warmed ; the consequence is unnecessary frequency of colds, head- 
aches and ill health." — Tolland. 

The Superintendent (Hon. Seth P. Beers) of Common Schools, thus 
introduces the subject in his Annual Report for 1848. 

" The reports of school visitors from every part of the state speak in 
strong terms of condemnation of the deplorable condition of many district 
school-houses. The progress of renovation and improvement in this de- 
partment has not been as rapid or as thorough, during the past year, as in 
other sections of New England, or as the true interests of the common 
schools imperiously demand. Badly located school-houses still " encum- 
ber the highway," — "without shrub or shade-tree around," — "without 



16 SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 

play-ground, yard, or out-house, mat or scraper/' — without means of ven- 
tilation and uniform temperature," — " with seats too high and destitute 
of support for the back." — ••' with desks attached to three sides of the room." 
"with windows destitute of glass." — -clapboards hanging loose." — 
'• blinds propped up to be kept in their places." — •• the wood without shel- 
ter." and •• the stove without a door." These are specimens of the lan- 
guage used by school visitors in describing the places where the children 
of Connecticut are receiving their early training in taste, manners, morals. 
and health, — language which it is hoped will touch the pride of the dis- 
tricts, and lead to §ome efficient action on the subject." 

"' How surprising and disgraceful is the fact. tha.t a very large propor- 
tion of the school-houses of our state present vastly fewer attractions, in 
point of comfortable arrangement and tastefulness. than are seen about 
our poor-houses, our jails, and our state penitectiar}' ! This remark is 
too true of the school-houses in this society. They are all located directly 
on the road or in it with hardly a shrub or shade-tree around any one of 
them : and with no play-ground except the highway, which the children. 
in several districts, have to share in common with geese and swine. Of 
their external condition nothing ver)" creditable or graiitying can be said. 
Six. of the nine school-houses in tliis society, are wooden ones, and they 
generally bear a time-honored, weather-beaten aspect. Unpainted and 
bhadless. with clapboards agape to catch the winds of w^ter. and win- 
dow-panes rattling, or fallen from the decayed sash, they present a most 
forlorn and gloomy aspect, which, to say the least, is not very well suited 
to woo the youthfal mind, and fill it with pleasant fancies. One. unac- 
quainted with their original design, might mistake them for the abodes 
of the evil genii, which would naturally be supposed to haunt the dreary 
solitudes which surround them. 

The internal condition of these school-houses is in perfect keeping with 
the external. In several of them, the plastering is broken and missing, 
to say nothing of the dark and dingy color of what remains. The stoves 
are smoky, and the benches and desks are so high as to be better adapted 
to the children of a race of giants, than to those of the present generation ; 
and these are hacked and gashed by the pupils, as if in retaliation for the 
torture sutTered from them. My compassion has been deeply moved as I 
have frequently entered these abodes of suffering, and seen their unhappy 
inmates — the children of protestant parents — doing penance upon their 
high seats, with no support to their backs but the soft edge of the project- 
ing board which forms the desk, and with their feet dangling in mid-air 
several inches from the floor. And when I have looked upon these 
youthful sufferers, thus seated and writhing with pain, the question has 
often arisen in my mind, what have these ill-starred children done that 
they should be doomed to so excruciating torture ? What rank offenses 
have they committed that they should thus be suspended between the 
heavens and earth for six hours' each day ? And from deep-felt pity for 
the innocent sufferers, I have sometimes' wished (perhaps it was cruel} 
that their parents had to sit for one hour in a similar position, that they 
might learn how to pity their children, and be prompted to attend to their 
health and comfort in the internal arrangement of the school-room. 

Add to all this the fact, so outrageous to common decency, that most 
of these school-houses have no out-buildings whatever attached to them; 
and does not the case appeal movingly to the friends of humanity, and 
demand prompt and decisive measures of reform ? Is it not passing 
strange, that while many parents incur considerable expense in providing 
themselves with cushioned and carpeted ehps in church, where they ordi- 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. lY 

narily spend, perhaps, but three hours each week, they should be so 
utterly regardless of the comfort and happiness of their offsprings in the 
school-room ?" — Bloomjield. 

" Three of the houses are located in the highway ; an excellent device 
for saving land, but a miserable one for the comfort, safety and improve- 
ment of children. In selecting sites for the new houses, recently erected, 
a good degree of space fronting was provided for. Only two houses have 
blinds or shutters; all the others give full scope for the sun to see what is 
going on in the school-room, often to the manifest annoyance of the chil- 
dren and teacher; unless, perchance, the latter has genius enough to con- 
vert a stray newspaper, or some other available article, into a temporary 
curtain to shut him oxxV— Manchester. 

" Our school-houses, though not cold and leaky, are very badly con- 
structed w;thin, and are therefore very inconvenient. Two of them stand 
mostly in the highway, so that one passing in a carriage or on horseback 
may look in upon the whole school, and as a matter of course the scholars 
will look at whatever passes. When the school-house is so exposed, it 
would seem; that modesty in our children would require the convenience 
of good out-houses ; but this is not the case with any two school-houses 
in the town. We have urged the importance of these things, but with 
poor success." — Suffield, 2d. 

" There are some houses unfit for their purpose ; the weather-boards are 
starting off, " and the wind enjoys quite freely the luxury of coming in 
and being warmed by the fire; and the dear children suffer much between 
a cold northwester and a red-hot stove," It is very common to find the 
school-houses mutilated by the cuttings of obscene figures ; this should 
draw forth the unqualified censure of proprietors and teachers. Further, 
there are cases where there are no out-houses for the use of children. 
This is a sore evil and ought to be remedied immediately." — Groton. 

" Among the ten school-houses in this district are several very good 
buildings ; but, taking in view the size and proportions of the edifices, 
the internal arrangement, the fitness of the seats and desks for the object 
designed, we feel impelled to say, that in our opinion there are no very 
good school-houses. In some of the districts it is said the people are 
obliged to go among strangers to procure teachers, on account of the 
shabbyness of the school-houses." — Brooklyn. 

" Not more than one-half of our school-houses in this society are very 
good, if, indeed, they can be termed more than comfortable. The remain- 
der are bad, some of them very bad, exhibiting nothing of comfort or con- 
venience. In some of them, there are no desks fit to be used for writing 
purposes. The seats are so constructed as to afford no place to rest the 
back, or, in some cases, even the sole of the foot. Many of the schools 
are destitute of out-houses. Some of them have no conveniences for 
hanging up the hats or clothes of the children, or even to shelter the wood 
from the weather. And more than half our school-houses are destitute 
of black-boards, a fact alike discreditable to the district and to the teach- 
ers who have served in them." — Stafford, \st. 

" It appears from the superintendent's report for 1847, that of 1663 
school-houses in the state, 873 have out-houses, and 745 have none ! 
This fact is, undoubtedly, a burning shame and a deep disgrace to the 
state. It is unworthy of a civilized country, and indicates a state of things 
that ought to exist only among savages. The committee are happy to 
say that we have little or no share in this shameful fact : but our school- 
houses are by no means what they should be, and call for improvement. 

2 



13 SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 

They are generally on or in the street whereas every building devoted to 
such a purpose ought to be in a retired situatioiL with suitable yards for 
play-grounds, and convenient fixtures. The windows in some do not let 
down from the top. and therefore are not properly ventilated. In only 
two out of eight school-houses are the benches what they should be. 
Large desks running around the room for the older scholars ought to be 
wholly discarded as intolerable nuisances. The scholars are of necessity 
always looking into the street : the windows can be opened only by cUmb- 
ing over the benches and desks. The scholaj^' backs are turned toward 
the teacher: they sit close together, and of course are often whispering. 
Large girls can leave their seats only by placing their feet on a level with 
their hips, which it is not always best that females should do. The 
smaller benches often have backs that are so loic as to be of Httle service. 
Every school-house ought to be provided with a single desk for each 
pupil, and every pupil ought to have a slate and books to keep in the 
desk," — Vernon. 

The following extracts are taken from the Annual Reports for 1S49. 

'• The school-houses are not what they should be. Some of them are de- 
cidedly bad. They are neither convenient nor pleasant. The benches 
and desks are inconvenient. Some of the sma.ll scholars are reduced to 
the miserable necessity of swinging in the air. without being able to either 
get a foothold or a place to res^ their backs against ^Ventilation is 
not attended to. Ever}- school-room should be so constructed that it can 
be freely ventilated, so that the scholars may have pure atmospheric air to 
breathe'. This every one must appreciate, who knows the value of 
health, and does not wish to see a generation of sickly drones coming on 
to the stage. As a general thing, the external appearance of the school- 
houses is bad. A stranger passing through a district can easily select 
the school-house. If you see a very unique-looking building, a '• squatter" 
in the highway, or standing by permission on the side of some lot. in a 
comer rendered useless by a location on the border of some swampy 
moor, or on some arid field, where no vestige of life is — that you may 
conclude is the district school-house. TTiat is the place where our chil- 
dren are to resort, during three-fourths of the first sixteen years of their 
Uves. to get an education. Such are the associations with their early, 
perhaps all their education I Why is not the district school the place 
where correct taste should be demonstrated ? Impressions icill be made, 
and if they ever yield to good taste, school-house associations, in their 
present state, will not deserve the credit." — Enfield. 

•' Our school-houses are in a bad condition. Look into the school some 
warm, comfortable day. when the children are more hkely to be in at- 
tendance, and if you please, walk in and breathe a specimen of the air in 
a ]\ew England unventilated school-house. If you are a well-bred man, 
you must do violence to your kind teehngs. when you take a seat and 
look around and find that the teacher has nothing left for his accommo- 
dation but a standee ; our school-houses are hterally jammed full. i. e. 
the seats — any attempt at improvement is voted down on account of the 
cost,'- —South Windsor. Wapping. 

'•' One district, for a wonder, occupied a new school-house : but while it is 
excellent, compared with the old one. it is contemptible, if not wicked. 
compared with what it oug-ht to be. The only plan about it seems to he. 
the minimum scale of e.vpenditure. Its dimensions are too hmiied even 
for 30 small a school. The desk or counter is uniform, and attached to 
three sides of the room, and almost out of the tallest scholars reach ! I 
have protested to the district, and possibly they will lower the counter, 



SCIIOOL-HOCJSES AS THEY ARE. 



19 



some time or other. The other districts need new school-rooms, and some 
to^A: of building."— VToZco^. 

•' In regard to the school-houses in our five districts, only one can be said 
to be very good. Another, recently repaired, may be called good in a 
quaUfied sense ; while the remaining three are quite ordinary, if not bad. 
This neglect to provide neat and comfortable school-houses, doubtless 
has a tendency to dampen the ardor of children in literary pursuits, and 
in various ways to retard their progress." — Plainjield. 

"The school-room in the third district presents the same unsightly ap- 
pearance which it has in years past ; and from the height to which the 
writing desks, and slabs used for seats, are elevated, some persons would 
naturally infer that they were originally designed for a race of giants." — 
Pomfret, Abington. 

•' Most of the school-ZioMses are in a bad condition, being old, ill-construct- 
ed, and inconvenient. Especially is this the case with regard to the inte- 
rior of some of them, the seats of which are too high for the comfort of 
the scholars, with nothing to rest the back against, except the sharp edge 
of a plank or board, which serves as a writing desk, and this placed so 
high as to bring the arm to an unnatural and uneasy position when at- 
tempting to write. The school-houses, too, with one or two exceptions, 
stand in the highway, many within a ^qv^ feet of the traveled path, with 
windows looking directly upon it, so that the attention of the scholar is 
necessarily attracted to every passer-by, thus diverting his attention from 
his studies, retarding his progress, and annoying his teacher." — Litchjield^ 
Milton. 



The Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools for 1850 
contains the following remarks on the condition of the school-houses. 

" If any reliance can be placed on the representations made by teachers 
and school visitors from two hundred and four out of the two hundred and 
seventeen school societies in the state, as collected from written commu- 
nications to this department in the course of the last four years, a majority 
of our school-houses are badly located, badly ventilated, imperfectly warm- 
ed in winter, having uncomfortable seats and desks, without apparatus 
except a black-board, and destitute of the most ordinary means of cleanli- 
ness and convenience. To this overwhelming mass of testimony (Appen- 
dix G) as to the necessity of immediate and thorough improvement in 
this portion of the educational field, I will here add an extract from a 
communication by a teacher of much experience and distinction, who re- 
ceived his education and commenced his experience in teaching in the 
district schools of this state. His remarks refer to the condition of school- 
houses in a single county — to three-fourths of which he had just made a 
personal visit." 

" Old School-Houses. — These are the Antiquities of Connecticut, rude 
monuments of art, that must have had their origin coeval with the pyra- 
mids and catacombs, for aught we can learn to the contrary, save by the 
uncertain information of tradition. " It always stood there," says " the 
oldest inhabitant," when asked the date of the erection of one of them. 
Little brown structures of peculiar aspect, meek, demure, burrowing in 
some lone, damp and depressed spot, or perchance perched on the pinna- 
cle of a rock, as if too contemptible and abject to occupy a choice piece of 
earth, — exposed to the remorseless winds of winter, and the fervid rays of 



20 



SCHOOL-BOUSES AS THEY ARE. 



summer. — at one end a narrow and dingy entry, the floor covered with 
wood, chips, stones, hats. caps, odd mittens, old books, bonnets, shawls. 
cloaks, dirt, dinner baskets, old brooms, ashes. &c.. all thrown together in 
the order as here catedogued. — the principal room retaining its huge stone 
chimney, which for generations boasted its ghastly fire-place, affording a 
ready obhvion to annual piles of green and snow-soaked wood. — the burnt, 
smoked, scratched and scrawled wainscoting. — the battered and mutilated 
plastering. — the patched windows. — the crippled and ragged benches. — 
the desks which have endured a short eternity of whitthng, — the masses 
of pulverized earth in constant agitation, filling the throat, eye and nos- 
trils of the inmates, — the mimistakable compound of odors which come not 
from '• Araby the blest" — all point to the remote antiquity of these build- 
ings, and intimate the veneration in wliich they are held. That some of 
these structures are always to remain, does not seem to admit of a •• rea- 
sonable doubt." The records of their origin, as we have seen, are gone, 
and the testimony of the past few generations is conclusive that no change 
has been effected in their appearance from a remote period ; hence the 
deduction that they are among the " things to remain," and never to pass 
away. Though the •• annual mii-ucle of nature" may not be vouchsafed 
to preser\-e them, yet, like the monuments of the American Indians which 
receive their annual votive offering of stones, and are thus rendered im- 
perishable, so these - antiquities," receiving their semi-occasional patches 
upon windows, upon clapboards, roofs and floors, together with the au- 
tumnal embankment of earth around their base, and all these given and 
received obsequious to the annual 5o/e/?!/i votes of the district, — stand, de- 
spite the advance of pubhc opinion, the " war of elements," and •'■ the tooth 
of time." 

Modern School Architectuhe. — It is much to be regretted that a 
work similar to - Barnard's Schoc^ Architecture" had not been issued 
and circulated throughout the state some ten years ago, that such as have 
since that time erected new houses, (that are to stand forever,) might 
have consulted approved models tor the size and forms of their structures. 
and improved plans for their internal arrangements. It would seem, how- 
ever, that enough had been said by the author of that work in his annual 
reports, and occasional addresses in the state, to have excited interest suf- 
ficient in those intending to build new houses, to extend their inquiries 
and obser^'ations beyond the Hmits of their own district, and beyond the 
pattern of their own recently condemned schcol-house. and at least to 
select suitable locations for houses and necessary out-buildings, if not for 
a yard and play-ground. " • "^ ' 

'The material changes observed in the construction of new houses about 
the county, consist hi placing the end of the building toward the street 
instead of the side, and giving a very narrow entry across the end of the 
building. — affording, in some instances, two entrances into the school- 
room, with only one into the entry. A portion of the entry is used for 
wood, which being thrown against the plastering, lays bare the lathing, 
making the building, while yet new. bear the tokens of age. In a few in- 
stances only have two outside doors been observed, giving separate en- 
trances to boys and girls. 

In most instances where the building is not erected on the line of the 
highway, it is placed only so far back as to allow a straggling wood pile 
just outside the traveled path. An instance is not now remembered 
where the generosity of the district has given a play-ground to the school, 
aside from the public common or the traveled highway. 

The internal arrangements of the new houses are, in many instances. 

* exactly like those of their immediate predecessors, save that in all cases 

it is believed the old movable slab benches, are superseded by perma- 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 21 

nent benches with backs. The windows, in all cases perhaps, in the new 
houses, have made a sensible step downward toward the floor ; and the 
desks and seats of the larger scholars, have also been brought down from 
their inconvenient and dizzy heights, that their occupants may not be 
" while in, above the world." 

Where change has been Avrought in the fixtures of the room, the desks 
are almost always clumsy, occupying unnecessary portions of the rooin, 
and rendering them inconvenient for the evolutions of the school. 

Ventilation has received a passing thought in the erection of most of 
the new houses, yet its importance is not probably fully appreciated, nor 
the best methods of securing it clearly understood. Some ventilate from 
the windows so successfully, as to part with the warm air almost entirely, 
and at the same time to retain the offensive gases and odors of the room. 
Some ventilators are placed in the ceiling in the corners of the rooms, 
others are placed immediately over the stove pipe, — some are movable, 
and moved with a cord, — others are simply a scuttle, expected to rise by 
the expansive power of the gases, as safety valves of engines operate by 
accumulation of steam. 

The substitution of stoves (mainly box stoves,) for the engulphing fire 
place, as a means of warming school-rooms, is noticed in the new houses. 

Of School-Houses generally. — To ascertain if improvement has 
been effected in this class of structures in the state, we must resort to one 
or two devices of the astronomer, in observing the motions of the heavenly 
bodies, viz., to notice their respective positions at different and remote 
periods of time. The progress of improvement has been so slow, (if im- 
provement has been made in school-houses,) that an observer from year 
to year only, might be at a loss to Imow that such was the fact ; but a 
comparison of the structures fifteen or twenty years ago, with the build- 
ings now occupied for schools, will doubtless enable one to say that pro- 
gress has been made. It is stated on very creditable authority that in 
some societies and some towns. 07ie, and in some instances, more than one 
house has been built, and one or more has been painted. 

The contributions upon old hats, upon writing books that are " writ 
through," &c., &c., are levied less frequently than formerly to repel the 
winds at the windows ; fewer clapboards are now seen swinging gaily by 
a single nail, than in bye-gone days ; the asthmatic wheezing of the 
winds through the uncounted apertures is hushed, and the pupils enjoy 
an irrigation through the roof less frequently than formerly. Curtains 
are occasionally found to protect the eyes of the pupils from the blinding 
rays of the sun ; the comfort of the smaller children is materially increas- 
ed by the addition of backs to their hard seats ; the desks and seats of the 
larger pupils have descended toward the floor ; the use of stoves giving 
a comfortable temperature to the rooms, instead of the former equatorial 
heat and the polar cold ; in rare instances the ingenious designs in chalk 
and charcoal upon the walls and ceiling have retired behind a coating of 
whitewash, and the yawning fire-place has been plastered over. All 
these movements distinctly indicate that vitahty at least exists among the 
people of this commonwealth, and that the best good of their children, as 
they tell ics, lies nearest their hearts. 

It is earnestly hoped that all persons will be open to conviction and 
receive the above statement of facts as a perfect demonstration of the 
earnestness of the community for the well being of the schools. 

When w^e come to the et ceteras of the school-rooms, such as shovel 
and tongs, brooms, brushes, bells, globes, sinks, wash-basins, towels, pegs, 
hooks and shelves for hats, clothing, &c., it is feared such great, such mo- 
mentous changes, such rapid advances, will not appear to have been 
made j probably not three districts in the county have gone so fast, or so 



22 SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 

far in adv^ance of the others as to have procured all these articles : proba- 
bly not more than half a dozen districts have supposed it important, that 
even a mat and scraper are necessary for pupils to use after walking, per- 
haps a mile in the mud : yet we should be doing them injustice in not 
supposing that they really feel this quenchless interest, which they repre- 
sent themselves as possessing for their children, and should greatly mis- 
judge them if we supposed them not doing all in their power to encourage 
their children in obtaining useful knowledge, and in cuhivathag the minor 
virtues while in school. 

OuT-EuiLDixGS. — An appalling chapter might be written, on the evils, 
the almost inevitable results of neglecting to provide these indispensable 
appendages to school-houses in our state. Who can duly estimate the 
jSnal consequences of the first shock given to female delicacy, from the 
necessary exposure, to which the girls in the public schools are inevitably 
subjected ; and what must be the legitimate results of these frequent ex- 
posures during the school-goin^ years of youth ? What quenchless fires 
of passion have been kindled witliin the bosom of the young of both sexes 
by these exposures, fires that have raged to the consuming of personal 
happiness, to the prevention of scholastic improvement, and to the de- 
struction of personal character ? again, what disgust has been created in 
both sexes by the results of not having the appropriate retirements which 
nature imperiously demands? and finally, may not the disinclination, the 
aversion of large numbers of families, of mothers especially, to sending 
their daughters to the public schools, have been created by the sufferings 
they themselves have endured, from the above cause ; and an unwilling- 
ness to subject the delicacy of their daughters to the obnoxious trial? 
Were the question not so peculiar as almost to defy examination, it is 
apprehended this would be found to be the truth. Will it not seem in- 
credible, even to Connecticut men. to be informed that less than one-halt 
of the school-houses in this commonwealth are without these necessary 
buildings? yet such is probably the fact; thus dooming thousands of girls 
to bear a loathsome burden ot" mortification, which they cannot remove 
without withdrawing from the schools. I have no exact data for the 
above estimate, yet it is probably not far below the truth, if indeed it is at 
all. So filthy are most of those'that are provided, that they are not only 
quite useless, but disgusting in the extreme. In one society of nine 
schools but one out-house was provided, and that. I was intbrmed. could 
only be reached in dry weather, such was its location ; nor could it be 
used even then, such was its conditio?!. This state of things, it would 
seem, should be utterly changed, and that speedily." 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Extracts /roTTi the "Report of the Secretary {Hon. Horace Mann) of 
the Board of Education for 1846." 
^For years the condition of this class of edifices, throughout the State, 
taken as a whole, had been growing worse and worse. Time and decay 
were always doing their work, while only here and there, with wide 
spaces between, was any notice taken of their silent ravages ; and. in 
still fewer instances, were these ravages repaired. Hence, notwith- 
standing the improved condition of all other classes of buildiiigs. general 
dilapidation was the fate of these. Industry' and the increasing pecu- 
niary abiUty which it creates, had given comfort, neatness, and even 
elegance to private dwellings. PubHc spirit had erected commodious 
and costly churches. Counties, though largely taxed, had yet uncom- 
plainingly paid for handsome and spacious court-houses and pubhc otfices. 



SCHOOL HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 23 

In 1837, not one third part of the Public School-houses in Massachu- 
setts would have been considered tenantable by any decent family, out 
of the poor-house, or in it. As an incentive to neatness and decency, 
children were sent to a house whose walls and floors were indeed painted, 
but they were painted, all too thickly, by smoke and filth ; whose benches 
and doors were covered with carved work, but they were the gross and 
obscene carvings of impure hands; whose vestibule, after the oriental 
fashion, was converted into a veranda, but the metamorphosis which 
changed its architectural style, consisted in laying it bare of its outer 
covering. The modesty and chastity of the sexes, at their tenderest age, 
was to be cultivated and cherished, in places, which oftentimes were as 
destitute of all suitable accommodations, as a camp or a caravan. The 
brain was to be worked amid gases that stupefied it. The virtues of 
generosity and forbearance were to be acquired where sharp discomfort 
and pain tempted each one to seize more than his own share of rehef, 
and thus to strengthen every selfish propensity. 

At the time referred to, the school-houses in Massachusetts were an 
opprobrium to the State; and if there be any one who thinks this 
expression too strong, he may satisfy himself of its correctness by 
inspecting some of the few specimens of them which still remain. 

The earhest effort at reform was directed towards this class of build- 
mgs. By presenting the idea of taxation, this measure encountered the 
opposition of one of the strongest passions of the age. Not only the 
sordid and avaricious, but even those, whose virtue of frugality, by the 
force of habit, had been imperceptibly sliding into the vice of parsimony, 
felt the alarm. Men of fortune, without children, and men who had 
reared a family of children, and borne the expenses of their education, 
fancied they saw something of injustice in being called to pay for the 
education of others ; and too often their fancies started up into spectres 
of all imaginable oppression and wi'ong. The school districts were the 
scene where the contending parties arrayed themselves against each 
other; the school-house itself their arena. From time immemorial, it 
had been the custom to hold school district meetings in the school-house. 
Hither, according to ancient usage, the voters w^ere summoned to come. 
In this forum, the question was to be decided, whether a new edifice 
should be erected, or whether the abihty of the old one to stand upon its 
foundations for another season, should be tried. Regard for the health, 
the decent manners, the inteUectual progress and the moral welfare of the 
children, common humanity, poHcy, duty, the highest worldly interests of 
the race, were marshalled on one side, demanding a change ; selfishness, 
cupidity, insensibihty to the wants and the welfare of others, and that 
fallacious plea, that because the school-house had answered the purpose 
so long, therefore it would continue to answer it still longer, — an argument 
which would make all houses, and roads, and garments, and every thing 
made by human hands, last forever, — resisted the change. The dis- 
graceful contrast between the school-house and all other edSces, whether 
pubHc or private, in its vicinity ; the immense physical and spiritual sacri- 
fices which its condition inflicted upon the rising generation, were often 
and unavailingly urged ; but there was always one argument which the 
advocates for reform could use with irresistible effect, — tlie school-house 
itself Cold winds, whistling through crannies and chinks and broken 
windows, told with merciless effect upon the opponents. The ardor of 
opposition was cooled by snow-blasts rushing up through the floor. Pain- 
imparting seats made it impossible for the objectors to listen patiently 
even to arguments on their own side ; and it weis obvious that the tears 
they shed were less attributable to any wTongs which they feared, than 
to the volumes of smoke which belched out with every gust of wind from 



24 SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 

broken funnels and chimneys. Such weis the case in some houses. In 
others, opposite evils prevailed ; and the heat and stifling air and nau- 
seating effluvia were such as a grown man has hardly been compelled to 
hve in. since the time of Jonah. 

Though insensible to arguments addressed to reason and conscience, 
yet the senses and muscles and nerves of this class of men were less 
hardened than theh hearts ; and the colds and cramps, the exhaustion and 
debihty, wliich they carried home, worked mightily for their conversion to 
truth. Under such circumstances, persuasion became compulsory. 

Could the leaders of the opposition have transferred .'"he debate to some 
commodious pubhc hall, or to their own spacious and elegant mansions, 
they might have bid defiance to humanity and remained masters of the 
field. But the party of reform held them relentlessly to the battle-groun.i ; 
and there the cause of progress triumphed, on the very spot where it ha J 
been so long dishonored. 

During the five years immediately succeeding the report made by the 
Board of Education to the Legislature, on the subject of school-houses, 
the sums expended for the erection or repair of this class of buildings fell 
but httle short of seven hundred thousand dollars. Since that time, from 
the best information obtained, I suppose the sum expended on this one 
item to be about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. 
Every year adds some new improvement to the construction and arrange- 
ment of these edifices. 

In regard to tliis great change in school-houses, — it would hardly be too 
much to call it a revolution, — the school committees have done an excel- 
lent work. — or rather, they have begun it; — it is not yet done. Their 
annual reports, read in open town meeting, or printed and circulated 
among the inhabitants, afterwards embodied in the Abstracts and distri- 
buted to all the members of the government, to all to^vns and school com- 
mittees have enhsrhtened and convinced a State. 



NEW-YORK. 

ExTRACT/ro??i the '-Annual Report of the Superintendent (Hon. Samuel 

Young) of Common Schools, made to the Legislature, January 13, 

1844." 

••The whole number of school-houses visited and inspected by the 
county superintendents durmg the year was 9.368 : of wliich 7,685 were of 
framed wood ; 446 of brick ; 523 of stone, and 707 of logs. Of these, 
3,160 were found in good repair ; 2.870 in ordinary and comfortable repair, 
and 3.319 in bad repair, or totally unfit for school purposes. The number 
furnished with more than one room was 544. leaving 8.795 with one room 
only. The number furnished with suitable play-grounds is 1,541 ; the 
number not so furnished, 7.313. The number furnished with a single 
priv}^ is, 1,810 ; those with pri\aes containing separate apartments for male 
and female pupils, 1,012 ; while the number of those not furnished with 
a7iy privy whatever, is 6,423. The number suitably furnished with con- 
venient seats, desks, dec. is reported at 3,282. and the number not so fur- 
nished, at 5,972. The number furnished with proper facilities for ventila- 
tion is stated at 1,518 ; wliile the number not provided with these essen- 
tial requisites of health and comfort is 7,889. 

No subject connected with the interests of elementary instruction 
affords a source of such mortifying and humihating reflections as that of 
the condition of a large portion of the school-houses, as presented in the 
above enumeration. One-third only of the whole number visited, were 
found in good repair: another third in ordinary and comfortable condition 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 25 

only in this respect — in other words, barely sufficient for the convenience 
and accommodation ol' the teachers and pupils ; while the remainder, con- 
sisting of 3.319, were to all intents and purposes unfit for the reception of 
man or beast. 

But 544 out of 9,368 houses visited, contained more than one room ; 
7,313 were destitute of any suitable play-ground; nearly six thousand 
were unfurnished with convenient seats and desks ; nearly eight thousand 
destitute of the proper facilities for ventilation ; and upwards of six thou- 
sand without a privy of any sort ; while of the remainder but about one 
tliousand were provided with privies containing different apartments for 
male and female pupils ! And it is in these miserable abodes of accumu- 
lated dirt and filth, deprived of wholesome air, or exposed without adequate 
protection to the assaults of the elements, with no facilities for necessary 
exercise or relaxation, no convenience for prosecuting their studies; 
crowded together on benches not admitting of a moment's rest in any 
position, and debarred the possibility of yielding to the ordinary calls of 
nature without violent inroads upon modesty and shame ; that upwards 
of two hundred thousand children, scattered over various parts of the 
State, are compelled to spend an average period of eight months during 
each year of their pupilage ! Here the first lessons of human life, the 
incipient principles of morality, and the rules of social intercourse are to 
be impressed upon the plastic mind. The boy is here to receive the 
model of his permanent character, and to imbibe the elements of his 
future career ; and here the instinctive delicacy of the young female, one 
of the characteristic ornaments of the sex, is to be expanded into matu- 
rity by precept and example ! Is it strange, under such circumstances, 
that an early and invincible repugnance to the acquisition of knowledge 
is imbibed by the youthful mind ; that the school-house is regarded with 
unconcealed aversion and disgust, and that parents who have any desire 
to preserve the health and the morals of their children, exclude them 
from the district school, and provide instruction for them elsewhere ? 

If legislation could reach and remedy the evil, the law-making power 
would be earnestly invoked. But where the ordinary mandates of 
humanity, and the laws of parental feeling written by the finger of 
heaven on the human heart, are obliterated or powerless, all statutory 
provisions would be idle and vain. In some instances during the past 
year, comfortable school-houses have been erected to supply the place oi 
miserable and dilapidated tenements which for years had been a disgrace 
to the inhabitants. Perhaps the contagion of such worthy examples may 
spread ; and that which seems to have been beyond the influence of the 
ordinary impulses of humanity, may be accomplished by the power of 
example or the dread of shame. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Extracts from the " Report of the Commissioner^ (-P^of- Hoddock^ of 

Dartmouth College) of Com/mon Schools, to the Legislature of New 

Hampshire^ June Session, 1847." 

" The success of our whole system depends as much on a thorough re- 
form in the construction and care of school-houses as upon any other 
single circumstance whatever. 

It is wonderful, and when their attention is called to it, strikes the in- 
habitants of the Districts themselves as really unaccountable, that care- 
ful and anxious parents have been content to confine their children for so 
many hours a day through a large part of the severest and most trying 
seasons of the year, in houses so ill constructed, so badly ventilated, so 
imperfectly warmed, so dirty, so instinct with vulgar ideas, and so utterly 
repugnant to all habits of neatness, thought taste, or purity. There are 
multitudes of houses in the State, not only inconveniently located, and 
awkwardly planned, but absolutely dangerous to health and morals* 



26 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 



And it has struck me with the greater surprise, that this is true not only of 
the thinly peopled parts of the State, but of flourishing villages. In one 



YEKilOXT. 

Extract from the " First Annual Report of the State Superintendent 
(Hon. Horace Eaton.) of Common Schools, October. 1846.'' made to the 
Legislature. 

'• It might occur to any one in traveUing through the State, that our 
school-houses are almost unifonnly located in an uninteresting and un- 
suitable spot and that the buildings themselves too generally exhibit an 
unfavorable, and even repulsive aspect Yet by giving some License to 
the imagination it might be supposed that, notwithstanding their location 
and external aspect were so forbidding, the internal appearance would be 
more cheerful and pleasant — or at least that the arrangement and con- 
struction within would be comlbrtably adapted to the purposes which the 
school-house was intended to fulfiL But an actual inspection of by far 
the greatest number of the school-houses in the State, by Count}- Super- 
intendents, discloses the unpleasant fact that ordinarily the interior does 
but correspond with the exterior, or is. if possible, still worse. A verj" 
large proportion of these buildings throughout the State must be set 
down as in a miserable condition. The melancholy fact is estabhshedby 
the concurrent report of all our Count}' Superintendents, that in every 
quarter of the State they are. as a class, altogether unsnited to their 
high purposes. Probably nine-tenths cf them are located upon the line 
of the highway: and as the geographical centre of the district usually 
determines their situation, aside trom the relation with the road, it is a 
rare cliance that one is not placed in an exposed, unpleasant and uncom- 
fortable spot. In some cases — especially in villages — their location 
seems to be determined by the worth, or rather by the icoiihlessness of 
the ground on which they stand — that being selected which is of the 
least value for any other purpose. Seldom or never do we see our school- 
houses surrounded by trees or shrubbery, to serve the purpose which 
they might serve so well — that of dehghting the eye. gratifHTng the 
taste, and contributing to the physical comfort by shielding from the 
scorching sun of summer, and breaking the bleak winds of winter. And 
from buildings thus situated and thus exposed, pupils are turned out into 
the streets for their sports, and for other purposes still more indispensable. 
What better results could be expected under such a system than that 
our • girls should become hoydens and our boys blackguards V Indeed 
it would be a happy event if in no case results still more melancholy and 
disastrous than tMs were reedized. 



MAIXE. 

Extract frojn a special •'• Report of the Secretary of the Board of Ed- 
ucation, upon the subject of School-Houses.'^ 
'• It is worthy of note, and of most serious consideration, that a ma- 
jority of the returns speak of ill-constructed school-houses as one of the 
most prominent 'defects in the practical operation of the lawestablisliing 
common-schools.' The strength and uniformity of the language made 
use of as well as the numerous apphcations to the members of the board, 
and their secretary, for inlbrmation upon this subject, leave no room for 
doubt as to the existence of a wide-spread evU : an evil, the deleterious 
influence of which, unless it is reformed, and that speedily, is not to be con- 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 27 

fined to the present generation, but must be entailed upon posterity. In 
remarking upon this subject, as long ago as 1832, it was said by the board 
of censors of" the American Institute of Instruction, that 'if we were called 
upon to name the most prominent defect in the schools of our country ; 
that which contributes most, directly and indirectly, to retard the progress 
of public education, and which most loudly calls for a prompt and thorough 
reform, it would be the want of spacious and convenient school-houses.' 
From every indication, there is reason to believe that the remark is ap- 
plicable to our school-houses, in their present condition, as it was when 
made." 

EHODE ISLAND. 

KxTRACTs from " Report on the condition and improvement of the Public 
Schools of Rhode Island, submitted Nov. 1, 1845, by Henry Barnard, 
Commissioner of Public Schools J^ 

"Of these, (three hundred and twelve school-houses visited,) twenty- 
nine were owned by towns in their corporate capacity ; one hundred and 
ibrty-seven by proprietors ; and one hundred and forty-five by school dis- 
tricts. Of two hundred and eighty school-houses from which full returns 
were received, including those in Providence, twenty-five were in very 
good repair ; sixty-two were in ordinary repair ; and eighty-six were 
pronounced totally unfit for school purposes; sixty-five were located in 
the public highway, and one hundred and eighty directly on the line of 
the road, without any yard, or out-buildings attached ; and but twenty- 
one had a play-ground inclosed. In over two hundred school-rooms, the 
average height was less than eight feet, without any opening in the ceil- 
ing, or other effectual means for ventilation ; the seats and desks were 
calculated for more than two pupils, arranged on two or three sides of the 
room, and in most instances, where the results of actual measurement 
were given, the highest seats were over eighteen inches from the floor, 
and the lowest, except in twenty-five schools, were ever fourteen inches 
for the youngest pupils, and these seats were unprovided with backs. 
Two hundred and seventy schools were unfurnished with a clock, black- 
board, or thermometer, and only five were provided with a scraper and 
mat for the feet." 



MICHIGAN. 

Extracts /rom ^'-Annual Report of the Superintendent {Hon. Ira May- 
hew) of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan, submitted Decem- 
ber 10, 1847." 

"In architectural appearance, school-houses have more resembled barns, 
sheds for cattle, or mechanic shops, than Temples of Science, — windows 
are broken — benches are mutilated — desks are cut up — wood is unpro- 
vided — out-buildings are neglected — obscene images and vulgar delinea- 
tions meet the eye without and within — the plastering is smoked and 
patched — the roof is so open as to let in a flood of water in a storm, suiii- 
cient to drown out a school, were not the floor equally open." 

We close this mass of testimony as to the deplorable condition of the 
common, or public school-houses in States where public instruction has 
received the most attention, with an extract from a '^Report on School- 
houses, published by order of the Directors of the Essex County Teachers' 
Association in 1833." 



28 SCHOOL HOUSES aS THEY ARE. 

'• There is one subject more to which vre must be permitted to refer. 
One m. "which the morals of the yomig are intimately connected, one in 
which parents, instructors, and scholars, should unite their efforts to pro- 
duce a reform : there should he nothing in or about school-houses, calcu- 
lated to defile the mini corrupt the heart or excite unholy and forbidden 
appetites ; yet considering the various character of those brought together 
in. our public schools, emd considering also how inventive are corrupt 
minds, in exhibiting openly the defilement which reigns within, we do not 
know but we must expect that school-houses, as well as other pubhc 
bmldings. and even fences. wQl continue to bear occasional marks both of 
lust and profaneness. But we must confess that the general apathy 
which apparently exists on this subject, does appear strange to us. It is 
a humbling fact' that in many of these houses, there are highly indecent. 
profane, and hbidinous marks, images and expressions, some of which are 
spread out in broad charactei^ oh the walk, where they unavoidably 
meet the eyes of all who come into the house, or being on the outside, 
salute the traveler as he passes by, wounding the dehcate. and anno\Tng 
the moral sensibilities of the heeirt While there is stiU a much greater 
number in smaller character. ujMDn the tables and seats of the students, 
and even in some instances, of the instructors, constantiy before the eyes 
of those who happen to occupy them. How contaminating these must 
be. no one can be entirely insensible. And yet how unakirmed. or if not 
entirely unalarmed. how httie is the mind of community- directed to the 
subject and how littie effort put forth to stay this fountain of corruption. 
TVe win mention as evidence of the pubhc apathy, one house which we 
suppose is this day. it certainly was a few months since, defiled by images 
and expressions of the kind referred to. spread out in open observation 
upon its walls, which Eire known to have been there for eight or ten 
years. In this building during all this time, the summer and winter 
schools have been kept! here the district have held their business meet- 
ings; here trequentiy has been the singing-school: here. too. religious 
meetings have otten been held : here. too. the school committee, the fathers, 
mothers, and triends of the children, have come to witness the progress 
of their children in knowledge and virtue : ah. of whom must have wit- 
nessed, and been ashamed of their defilement and yet no effecroal effort 
has been put forth to remove them. Such things ought not to be ; they 
can, to a considerable extent be prevented. The community are not 
therefore altogether clear in this matter. 

We will close these remarks by observing that after an extensive and 
careful examination of the state of a great number of school-houses in this 
and other States, we are constrained to beheve. that in regard to accom- 
modation, the convicts in the State Prisons, except those condemned to 
soUtary and perpetual confinement and we are not certain that in all 
cases these should be excepted, are better provided for. than the dear 
children of ^sew England, the glory of the present and the hope of the 
coming age. And when we regard' the deleterious effect which the want 
of accommodation and other imperfections in and about these buildings, 
must have upon the growth, health, and perfectness of the bodily system, 
upon the mental and moral power, upon the tender and dehcate feeling 
of the heart we must suppose there is as pressing a call for the direct 
interference of the wise and benevolent to produce an improvement as 
there is for the efforts of the Prison Discipline Societ}', or for many of the 
benevolent exertions of the day. And we do most solemnly and affec- 
tionately call upon all, according to their situation in lile. to direct their 
attention to the subject ; for the bodies, the minds, tne hearts of the young 
and rising generation require this. It is a service due to the present and 
future generation, A service due to their bodies and souls." 



II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

1. A location, healthy, accessible from all parts of the district; 
retired from the dust, noise, and danger of the highway; at- 
tractive, from its choice of sun and shade, and commanding, in one 
or more directions, the cheap, yet j^riceless educating influences of 
fine scenery. 

2. A site large enough to admit of a yard in front of the building, 
either common to the whole school or appropriated to greensward, 
flowers and shrubbery, and two yards in the rear, one for each sex, 
properly inclosed, and fitted up with rotary swings, and other means 
of recreation and exercise, and with privies, which a ci\dlized people 
never neglect. 

3. Separate entrances to the school-room for each sex ; each en- 
trance distinct from the front door, and fitted up with scraper, mats, 
and old broom for the feet; with hooks, shelves, &c., for hats, over- 
coats, over-shoes, and umbrellas ; with sink, pump, basin and towels, 
and with brooms and duster, and all the means and appliances 
necessary to secure habits of order, neatness and cleanliness. 

4. School-room, in addition to the space required by aisles and 
the teacher's platform, sufficient to accommodate with a s«at and 
desk, not only each scholar in the district who is in the habit of at- 
tending school, but all who may be entitled to attend ; with verge 
enough to receive the children of industrious, thoughtful, and reli- 
gious families, who are sure to be attracted to a district which is 
blessed with a good school-house and a good school. 

5. At least one spare room for recitation, library, and other uses, 
to every school-room, no matter how small the school may be. 

6. An arrangement of the windows, so as to secure one blank wall, 
and at the same time, the cheerfulness and warmth of the sunlight, at 
all times of the day, with arrangements to modify the same by blinds, 
shutters, or curtains. 

7. Apparatus for warming, by which a large quantity of pure air 
from outside of the building can be moderately heated, and intro- 
duced into the room without passing over a red-hot iron surface, and 
distributed equally to different parts of the room. 

8. A cheap, simple, and efficient mode of ventilation, by which 
the air in every part of a school-room, which is constantly becoming 
vitiated by respiration, combustion, or other causes, may be constantly 
flowing out of the room, and its place filled by an adequate supply of 
fresh air drawn from a pure source, and admitted into the room at 
the right temperature, of the requisite degree of moisture, and without 
any perceptible current. 

9. A desk with at least two feet of top surface, and in no case for 
more than two pupils, inclined towards the front edge one inch in a 
foot, except two to three inches of the most distant portion, which 
should be level, and covered with cloth to prevent noise — fitted with 
an ink-pot (supplied with a lid and a pen-wiper,) and a slate, with a 
pencil-holder and a sponge attached, and supported by end-pieces or 



30 



SCHOOL ARCHiTECTUEE. 



Stanchions, curved so as to be convenient for sweeping, and to admit of 
easy access to the seat — these of varying heights for small and 
large pupils, the front edge of each desk being from seven to nine 
inches (seven for the lowest and nine for the highest,) higher than 
the front edge of the seat or chair attached. 

10. A chair or bench for each pupil, and in no case for more than 
two, unless separated by an aisle, with a seat hollowed like an ordi- 
nary chair, and varpng in height from ten to seventeen inches from 
the outer edge to the floor, so that each pupil, when properly seated, 
can rest his feet on the floor without the muscles of the thigh press- 
ing hard upon the front edge of the seat, and with a support for the 
muscles of the back, rising above the shoulder-blades. 

11. An arrangement of the seats and desks, so as to allow of an 
aisle or free passage of at least two feet around the room, and be- 
tween each range of seats for two scholars, and so as to bring each 
scholar under the super^-ision of the teacher. 

12. Arrangements for the teacher, such as a separate closet for 
his overcoat, &:c.,a desk for his papers, a library- of books of reference, 
maps, apparatus, and all such instrumentalities by which his capa- 
cities for instruction may be made in the highest degree useful. 

13. Accommodations for a school library for consultation and cir- 
culation among the pupils, both at school and as a means of carrying 
on the work of self-education at their homes, in the field, or the work- 
shop, after they have left school. 

14. A design in good taste and fit proportion, in pl-ace of the 
wretched perversions of architecture, which almost universally char- 
acterize the district school-houses of Xew England. 

15. While making suitable accommodation for the school, it will be 
a wise, and, all things considered, an economical investment, on the 
part of many districts, to provide apartments in the same building, or 
in its neighborhood, for the teacher and his family. This arrangement 
^yi[\ give character and permanence to the office of teaching, and at 
the same time secure better supervision for the school-house and 
premises, and more attention to the manners of the pupils out of 
school. Provision for the residence of the teacher, and not un- 
frequently a garden for his cultivation, is made in connection with the 
parochial schools in Scotland, and with the first class of public schools 
in Germany. 

16. Whenever practicable, the privies should be disconnected from 
the play-ground, and be approached from a covered walk. Perfect 
seclusion, neatness and propriety should be strictly observed in re- 
lation to them. 

17. A shed, or covered walk, or the basement story paved under 
feet, and open for free circulation of air for the boys, and an upper 
room with the floor deafened and properly supported for calisthenic 
exercises for the girls, is a desirable appendage to every school. 

As many of the houses described are provided with very inad- 
equate means of warming and ventilation, the following summar}' 
of the principles, which ought to be regarded in all arrangements for 



PRINCIPLES OF VENTILATION. 31 

these objects, is given as the result of much observation, reflection, 
and experience. 

1. The location of the school-house must be healthy, and all 
causes, — such as defective drains, stagnant water, decaying animal or 
vegetable substances, and manufactures, whose operations evolve 
offensive and deleterious gases, — calculated to vitiate the external at- 
mosphere, from which the air of the school-room is supplied, must 
be removed or obviated. 

2. The means provided for ventilation must be sufficient to secure 
the object, independent of doors and windows, and other lateral 
openings, which are intended primarily for the admission of light, 
passage to and from the apartment, and similar purposes. Any de- 
pendence on the opening of doors and windows, except in summer, 
will subject the occupants of the room near such points to currents 
of cold air when the pores of the skin are open, and when such ex- 
treme and rapid changes of temperature are particularly disagreeable 
and dangerous, 

3. Any openings in the ceiling for the discharge of vitiated air into 
the attic, and hence to the exterior of the building, or by flues carried 
up in the wall, no matter how constructed or where placed, cannot 
be depended on for purposes of ventilation, unless systematic ar- 
rangements are adopted to eflect, in concert with such openings, the 
introduction and difiusion of a constant and abundant supply of pure 
air, in the right condition as to temperature and moisture. 

4. All stoves, or other heating apparatus, standing in the apartment 
to be warmed, and heating only the atmosphere of that apartment, 
which is constantly becoming more and more vitiated by respiration 
and other causes, are radically defective, and should be altogether, 
without delay, and forever discarded. 

5. Any apparatus for warming pure air, before it is introduced into 
the school-room, in which the heating surface becomes red-hot, or 
the air is warmed above the temperature of boiling water, is incon- 
sistent with true ventilation. 

6. To effect the combined objects of warming and ventilation, a 
large quantity of moderately heated air should be introduced in such 
a manner as to reach every portion of the room, and be passed off by 
appropriate openings and flues, as fast as its oxygen is exhausted, 
and it becomes vitiated by carbonic acid gas, and other noxious 
qualities. 

7. The size and number of the admission flues or openings will 
depend on the size of the school-room, and the number of persons 
occupying the same ; but they should have a capacity to supply every 
person in the room with at least five cubic feet of air per minute. 
Warm air can be introduced at a high as well as a low point from 
the floor, provided there is an exhaustive power in the discharging 
flues sufficient to secure a powerful ascending current of vitiated air 
from openings near the floor. 

8. Openings into flues for the discharge of vitiated air, should be 
made at such points in the room, and at such distances from the 
openings for the admission of pure warm air, that a portion of the 



32 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

warm air Avill traverse every part of tlie room, and impart as much 
warmth as possible, before it becomes vitiated and escapes from the 
apartment. 

These openings can be made near the floor, at points most distant 
from the admission dues, provided there is a fire draught, or other 
power operating in the discharging flues, sufficient to overcome the 
natural tendency of the warm air in the room to ascend to the ceiling ; 
otherwise they should be inserted in or near the ceiling. 

Openings at the floor are recommended, not because carbonic acid 
gas, being heavier than the other elements of atmospheric air, settles 
to the floor, (because, owing to the law of the diflusion of gazes 
among each other, carbonic acid gas will be found equally diffused 
through the room,) but because, when it can be drawn off at the 
floor, it will carry along with it the cold air which is admitted by 
open doors, and at cracks and crevices, and also the offensive gases 
sometimes found in school-rooms. 

9. All openings, both for the admission and discharge of air, should 
be fitted \vith valves and registers, to reg-ulate the quantity of air to 
pass through them. The quantity of air to be admitted should be 
regulated before it passes over the heating surface ; otherwise, being 
confined in the air chamber and tubes, the excessive heat will cause 
much injury to the pipes and the woodwork adjoining. 

10. All flues for ventilation, not intended to act in concert with 
some motive power, such as a fan, a pump, the mechanism of a clock, 
a flre-draught, a jet of steam, &c., but depending solely on the spon- 
taneous upward movement of the column of warm air within them, 
should be made large, (of a capacitv^ equal to at least 18 inches in 
diameter,) tight, (except the openings at the top and bottom of the 
room :) smooth, (if made of boards, the boards should be seasoned, 
matched, and planed ; if made of bricks, the flue should be round, 
and finished smooth.) and carried up on the inside of the room, or in 
the inner wall, with as few angles and deviations from a direct 
ascent as possible, above the highest point of the roof. 

11. All flues for the discharge of vitiated air, even when properly 
constructed and placed, and even when acting in concert with a ciu:- 
rent of warm air flowing into the room, should be supplied with some 
simple, reliable exhaustive power, which can be applied at all sea- 
sons of the year, and with a force var\dng with the demands of the 
season, and the condition of the air in the apartment. 

12. The most simple, economical, and reliable motive power 
available in most school-houses is heat, or the same process by 
which the natural upward movements of air are induced and sus- 
tained. Heat can be applied to the column of air in a ventilating flue, 

1. By carrying up the ventilating flue close beside, or even within 
the smoke flue, which is used in connection with the heating appa- 
ratus. 

2. By carrying up the smoke-pipe within the ventilating flue, 
either the whole length, or in the upper portion only. In a small 
school-room, the heat from the smoke-pipe carried up for a few feet 
only in the ventilating flue before it projects above the roof, is a 



PRINCIPLES OF VENTILATION. 33 

motive power sufficient to sustain a constant draught of cool and 
vitiated air, into an opening near the floor. 

3. By kindling a lire at the bottom, or other convenient point in 
the ventilating flue 

If the same flue is used for smoke from the fire, and vitiated air 
from the apartment, some simple self-acting valve or damper should 
be applied to the opening for the escape of the satiated air, which 
shall close at the slightest pressure from the inside of the flue, and 
thus prevent any reverse current, or down draught, carrying smoke and 
soot into the apartment. 

4. By discharging a jet of steam, or a portion of warm air from the 
furnace, or other warming apparatus, directly into the ventilating flue. 

Any application of heat by which the temperature of the air in the 
ventilating flue can be raised above the temperature of the apartment 
to be ventilated, will cause a flow of air from the apartment to sus- 
tain the combustion, (if there is a fire in the flue,) and to supply the 
partial vacuum in the flue, which is caused by the rarefaction of the 
air in the same. 

In all school buildings, when several apartments are to be venti- 
lated, the most effectual, and, all things considered, the most econom- 
ical, mode of securing a motive power, is to construct an upright 
brick shaft or flue, and in that to build a fire, or carry up the smoke- 
pipe of the stove, furnace, or other warming apparatus ; and then to 
discharge the ventilating flues from the top or bottom of each apart- 
ment, into this upright shaft. The fire draught will create a partial 
vacuum in this shaft, to fill which, a draught will be established upon 
every room with which it is connected by lateral flues. Whenever 
a shaft of this kind is resorted to, the flues for ventilation may be 
lateral, and the openings into them may be inserted near the floor. 

13. With a flue properly constructed, so as to facilitate the spon- 
taneous upward movement of the warm air within it, and so placed 
that the air is not exposed to the chilling influence of external cold, 
a turncap, constructed after the plan of Emerson's Ejector, or Mott's 
Exhausting Cowl, will assist the ventilation, and especially when 
there are any currents in the atmosphere. But such caps are not 
sufficient to overcome any considerable defects in the construction of 
the ventilating flues, even when there is much wind. 

14. The warming and ventilation of a school-room will be facili- 
tated by applying a double sash to all windows having a northern 
and eastern exposure. 

15. In every furnace, and on every stove, a capacious vessel well 
supplied with fresh water, and protected from the dust, should be 
placed. 

16. Every school-room should be furnished with two thermometers 
placed on opposite sides in the room, and the temperature in the 
winter should not be allow^ed to attain beyond 68° Fahrenheit at a 
level of four feet from the floor, or 70° at the height of six feet 

17. The necessity for ventilation in an occupied apartment is not 
obviated by merely reducing the atmosphere to a low temperature. 

o 



34 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



In the following pages will be found plans and descriptions of h 
few of the best school-houses, which have been recently erected in 
Rhode Island and Connecticut, for schools of diiferent grades, from 
designs or directions furnished by the author of this treatise. They 
are not presented as faultless specimens of school architecture, but 
as embracing, each, some points of excellence, either in style, con- 
struction, or arrangement. Although the author, as Commissioner 
of Pubhc Schools for Rhode Island, was consulted in almost every 
mstance by the local building committee, and was always gratified 
in having opportunities to furnish plans, or make suggestions, — ^yet 
he was seldom able to persuade the committee, or the carpenters, to 
carry out his plans and suggestions thoroughly. Something would 
be taken from the height, or the length, or the breadth : — some ob- 
jections would be made to the style of the exterior or the arrange- 
ment of the interior : — and particularly the plans recommended for 
securing warmth and ventilarion were almost invariably modified, 
and in very many instances entirely neglected. He desires, there- 
fore, not to be held responsible for the details of any one house as 
It now stands. — for being thus held responsible, he should probably 
receive credit for improvements which others are as much entitled 
to as himself, and should in more instances be held accountable for 
errors of taste, and deficiencies in internal arrangements, against 
which he protested with those having charge of the building. He 
wishes the reader to bring all the plans published m this volume, no 
matter by whom recommended, or where erected, to the test of the 
principles which have just been briefly set forth. If in any partic- 
ular they fall short of the standard therein established, so far they 
difier from the designs which the author would try to see fol- 
lowed in houses erected under his own eye. But with some reser- 
vation, most of the school-houses recently erected in Rhode Island 
can be pointed to as embracing many improvements in school 
architecture. Although the last state in New England to enter on 
the work of estabhshing a system of common schools, it is believed, 
she has now a system in operation not inferior in efficiency 
to any of her sister states. Be that as it may. Rhode Island can 
now boast of more good school-houses, and fewer poor ones, in pro- 
portion to the whole number, than any other State — more than one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars having been voluntarily voted for 
this purpose in less than three years, by school districts, not includ- 
ing the city of Pro\'idence. The few poor houses which remain. 
if they can resist much longer the attacks of the elements, cannot 
stand up against the accumulating weight of pubhc condemnation. 

To Mr. Thomas A. Teft, of Providence, much credit is due for 
the taste which he has displayed in the designs furnished by him, 
and for the elevations which he drew for plans furnished or sug- 
gested by the Commissioner. He should, not, however, be held re- 
sponsible for the alterations made in his plans by the committees 
and carpenters having charge of the erection of the buildings after 
plans ftumished by him. 



m. PLANS OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. 

In determining the details of construction and arrangement for a 
school-house, due regard must, of course, be had to the varying cir- 
cumstances of country and city, of a large and a small number of 
scholars, of schools of different grades, and of different systems of 
instruction. 

1. In by far the largest number of country districts as they are 
now situated, there will be but one school-room, with a smaller room 
for recitations and other purposes needed. This must be arranged 
and fitted up for scholars of all ages, for the varying circumstances of 
a summer and of a winter school, and for other purposes, religious 
and secular, than those of a school, and in every particular of con- 
struction and arrangement, the closest economy of material and labor 
must be studied. A union of two or more districts for the purpose of 
maintaining in each a school for the younger children, and in the 
center of the associated districts a school for the older children of all 
or, what would be better, a consolidation of two or more districts into 
one, for these and all other school purposes, would do away with the 
almost insuperable difficulties which now exist in country districts, 
in the way of comfortable and attractive school-houses, as well as of 
thoroughly governed and instructed schools. 

2. In small villages, or populous country districts, at least two 
school-rooms should be provided, and as there will be other places for 
public meetings of various kinds, each room should be appropriated 
and fitted up exclusively for the use of the younger or the older 
pupils. It is better, on many accounts, to have two schools on the 
same floor, than one above the other. 

3. In large villages and cities, a better classification of the schools 
can be adopted, and, of course, more completeness can be given to 
the construction and arrangement of the buildings and rooms appro- 
priated to each grade of schools. This classification should embrace 
at least three grades — viz. Primary, with an infant department ; Sec- 
ondary, or Grammar ; Superior, or High Schools. In manufacturing 
villages, and in certain sections of large cities, regularly organized 
Infant Schools should be established and devoted mainly to the cul- 
ture of the morals, manners, language and health of very young 
children. 

4. The arrangement as to supervision, instruction and recitations, 
must have reference to the size of the school ; the number of teachers 
and assistants ; the general organization of the school, whether in 
one room for study, and separate class rooms for recitation, or the 
several classes in distinct rooms under appropriate teachers, each 
teacher having specified studies ; and the method of instruction pur- 
sued, whether the mutual, simultaneous, or mixed. 

Since the year 1830, and especially since 1838, much ingenuity 
has been expended by practical teachers and architects, in devising 
and perfecting plans of school-houses, with all the details of con- 
structiQu and fixtures, modified to suit the varied circumstances enu- 
merated above, specimens of which, with explanations and descrip- 
tions, will be here given. 



og SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plaxs of School-Houses with one School-room. 

The largest number of school-houses -^-hich are erected with but 
one school-room, are intended for District, or for Primary Schools. 

District School. 

By a District School, in this connection, is understood a public 
school open to all the children of the district, of both sexes, and of 
the school age recognized by the practice of the district, or the regu- 
lations of the school committee of the town to which such district 
belongs. It is an unclassided school, and is taughr in one apartment, 
by one teacher, usually without any assistance even from older pupils 
of the school. It varies in the character of its scholars, and its 
methods of instruction, from summer to winter, and from winter to 
summer. In summer, the younger children and classes in the ele- 
mentary studies predominate, and in the winter the older pupils, and 
classes in the more advanced studies, whilst some of both extremes, 
as to age and studies, are to be found in both the winter and summer 
session of the district school. This variety of ages and studies, and 
consequent variety of classes, increased by the irregularity of at- 
tendance, is not only a serious hinderance to the proper arrangement, 
instruction and government of the school, but presents almost insu- 
perable obstacles to the appropriate construction and furniture of the 
school-house, which is too often erected on the smallest possible 
scale of size and expense. A vast amount of physical suffering and 
discomfort to the pupils is the necessary result of crowding the older 
and younger pupils into a small apartment, without seats and furniture 
appropriate to either, and especially when no precaution has been 
taken to adapt the supply and arrangements of seats and desks ac- 
cording to the varying circumstances of the same school in winter 
and summer. In every district, or unclassified school, the school- 
room should be fitted up with seats and desks for the older and 
vouno[er pupils, sufficient to accommodate the maximum attendance of 
each class of scholars at any season of the year. And if this cannot 
be effected, and only a sufficient number of seats can be secured to 
accommodate the highest number of both sexes in attendance at any 
one time, then in winter the seats and desks for the smaller children 
should be removed to the attic, and their place supplied by additional 
seats and desks for the older pupils ; and in summer this arrange- 
ment should be reversed. ' 



Primary Schools. 

By a Primarj' School, in our American School Systems, is under- 
stood, not generally an Elementary School, embracing a course of 
instruction for the great mass of the children of the community 



PRIMARY SCHOOLS, 37 

under fourteen years of age — ^but specifically, that class or grade of 
schools which receive only the youngest pupils, and those least 
advanced in their studies. 

Any scheme of school organization will be imperfect which does 
not include special arrangements for the systematic training and in- 
struction of very young children, especially in all cities, manufactur- 
ing villages, and large neighborhoods. Among the population of 
such places, many parents are sure to be found, who, for want of 
intelligence or leisure, of constancy and patience, are unfitted to 
watch the first blossoming of the souls of their children, and to train 
them to good physical habits, virtuous impulses, and quick and accu- 
rate observations ; to cleanliness, obedience, openness, mutual kind- 
liness, piety, and all the virtues which wise and far-seeing parents 
desire for their offspring. The general result of the home training 
of tlie children of such parents, is the neglect of all moral culture 
when such culture is most valuable ; and the acquisition of manners, 
personal habits, and language, which the best school training at a 
later period of life can with difficulty correct or eradicate. To meet 
the wants of this class of children. Halls of Refuge and Infant 
Schools were originally instituted by Oberlin, Owen, and Wilderspin, 
and now constitute under these names, or the names of Primary 
Schools, or Primary Departments, a most important branch of ele- 
mentary education, whether sustained by individual charity, or as 
part of the organization of public instruction. 

No one at all acquainted with the history of education in this 
country, can doubt that the establishment of the Primary School for 
children under six years of age, in Boston, in 1818, as a distinct 
grade of schools, with the modifications which it has since re- 
ceived there, and elsewhere, from the principles and methods of 
the Infant School system, has led to most important improvements in 
the quality and quantity of instruction in our public schools, and the 
sooner a Primary School properly organized, furnished and man- 
aged, can be established in every large neighborhood, and especially 
in the " infected districts" of cities and manufacturing villages, the 
more rapid and more thorough will be the progress of education. 
Its doors should stand wide open to receive such children as are 
abandoned by orphanage, or, worse than orphanage, by parental 
neglect and example, to idle, vicious, and pilfering habits, before the 
corruptions incident to their situation have struck deep into their 
moral nature, and before they have fallen under the alluring and 
training influences and instruction of bad boys who infest such 
regions, polluting the atmosphere by their profane and vulgar speech, 
and participating in every street brawl and low-bred riot. From all 
such influences, the earlier the children of the poor and the ignorant 
are withdrawn, and placed under the care and instruction of an 
Infant or Primary School, the better it will be for them and for 
society. But in every locality the Primary School should be estab- 
lished, and brought as near as possible to the homes of the children, 
in order to secure their early and regular attendance, and to relieve 
the anxiety of parents for their safety on their way to and from 



3g SCHOOL ARCmTECTURE. 

school. The pecuHarities of play-giound, school-room, and teachers 
required for this class of schools, should be carefully studied, and 
promptly and liberally provided. The school-room should be light, 
cheerful, and large enough for the evolutions of large classes, — fur- 
nished with appropriate seats, furniture, apparatus, and means of 
visible illustration, and haWng a retired, dry, and airy play-ground, 
tvith a shelter to resort to in inclement weather, and with flower 
borders, shrubbery, and shade-trees, which they should be taught to 
love and respect. The play-ground is as essential as the school- 
room for a Primary School, and is indeed the uncovered school- 
room of physical and moral education, and the place where the 
manners and personal habits of children can be better trained than 
elsewhere. With them, the hours of play and study, of confinement 
and recreation, must alternate more frequently than with older pupils. 

To teach these schools properly, to regialate the hours of play and 
study so as to give variety, vivacity, and interest to all of the exer- 
cises, without over-exciting the nervous system, or overtasking any 
faculty of mind or body, — to train boys and girls to mild dispositions, 
graceful and respectful manners, and unquestioning obedience, — to 
preserve and quicken a tenderness and sensibility" of conscience as the 
instinctive monitor of the approach of wrong, — to cultivate the senses 
to habits of quick and accurate observation and discrimination, — to 
prevent the formation of artificial and sing-song tones, — to teach the 
use of the voice, and of simple, ready, and correct language, and to 
begin in this way, and by appropriate exercises in drawing, calcu- 
lation, and lessons on the properties and classification of objects, the 
cultivation of the intellectual faculties, — to do all these things and 
more, require in the teacher a rare union of qualities, seldom found 
in one in a hundred of the male sex, and to be looked for with the 
greatest chance of success among females, " in whose own hearts, 
love, hope, and patience have first kept school," and whose laps 
seem always full of the blossoms of knowledge, to be showered on 
the heads and hearts of infancy and childhood. In the right educa- 
tion of early childhood, must we look for a corrective of the evils of 
society in our large cities and manufacturing villages, and for the 
beginning of a better and higher civilization than has yet blessed 
our world. The earlier we can establish, in every populous district, 
primary schools, under female teachers, whose hearts are made 
strong by deep religious principle, — who have faith in the power of 
Christian love steadily exerted to fashion anew the bad manners, and 
soften the harsh and self-willed perverseness of neglected children, — 
with patience to begin every morning, with but little, if any, percep- 
tible advance beyond where they began the previous morning, — with 
prompt and kind sympathies, and ready skill in music, drawing, and 
oral methods, the better it will be for the cause of education, and for 
every other good cause. 

The following plan of a Play Ground for an Infant or Primarj- 
School is copied from '-Wilder spin's Early Education J^ \\e should 
prefer to see an accomplished female teacher presiding over the 
scene. 



^0 



rCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




The cMcf requisites Id an infant-school plaj-ground are the following : 
A. C imbing Stand ; a Horizontal Bar : Paraillel Bars ; Wooden Svfiags ; a 
llouble Inclined Plane. 

The Climbing Stand consists essentially 
of a frame- work of poles, which support ropes 
for climbing. One of the most simple and 
economical is made of two ordinary scaifold 
poles, leaned smooth and painted, which sup- 
port a transTerse beam having hooks, to 
which the ropes are attached- 

The dimensions maybe as follows : Length 
of perpendicular poles, 15 feet, of which 4 
feet are sunk in the ground ; circumference 
of poles at the surface of the ground, 14 
inches ; length of transverse beam at top, 9 
ieet. To tius beam are attached, by screw- 
ing in, two iron hooks, which support the 
ropes; these are Is inches in diameter, to 
afford a firm grasp to the hand. In order 
that the ropes may not wear through where attached to the hooks, they are 
spliced round an iron ring, which is grooved on the outer surface to give a 
firmer hold to the rope. Both the ropes should be attached to the bottom of 
the poles so as to hang loosely : if not fastened at the bottom, the children 
use them as swings while clinging to them, and are apt to injure themselves 
by falling, or others by coming violently in contact with them. 

No apparatus is more advantageous : it is economical in its erection, and 
not liable to get out of order ; it afibrds exercise to a number of children ar 
the same time, a succession being constantly engaged in climbing and de- 
scending the ropes and poles ; the mnscnlar exertion is not violent, hot 
decidedly beneficial, expanding the chest, and giving power and freedom of 
morion to the arms. This exercise is also quite free from danger, the chil- 
dren never advancing higher up the ropes than they feel themselves secure. 
During the seven years the Home and Colonial Infant-school has been 
established, 200 children have been the average attendance, but no accidents 
have occurred from the use of the climbing-stand. 

The Horizontal Bar consists of a wooden bar formed of beech, red deal. 
or some other tough wood not apt to splinter or warp, about three inches in 
diameter, and usually sis feet long, turned or planed round and smooth, in 
order that the hands may not be blistered by the friction. 

Every play-ground should possess two or three of these useful additions : 
one 6 feet from the grotmd, another 5 feet, and a tliird 4 feet high, — each one 
being supported and fixed firmly by a post at both ends. Or they may be 
arranged so that four posts will support the three bars. The exercises per- 
form^ on the horizontal bars consist in the child remaining suspended bv 
the arms and hands ; in drawing the body up so as to look over the bar sev- 
eral times in succession ; in traversing from one end of the bar to the other 
(suspended by the hands,) both backwards and forwards ; in s^vinging the 
body whilst suspended from the bar. 




PLAY-GROUND OF INFANT SCHOOL. 



41 



The Parallel Bar consists of two bars 
placed parallel with one another, each being 
from 6 to 8 feet long, 4 inches deep by 2 
inches wide, with the corners rounded off. 
The posts that support these bars in their po- 
sition should be 18 inches apart. The bars 
should project four inches beyond the post. 
Two sets of parallel bars are advantageous, one being 2 feet 9 inches high 
lor the younger children, the other 4 feet high for the elder. 

The exercises on these bars consist in supporting the body on the arms, 
one hand resting on each bar, and by moving each hand alternately, proceed- 
ing forwards and backwards along the bars ; in swinging the body between 
the arms ; and in springing over the bar on each side, both backwards and 
forwards. 

The Wooden Springs afford a kind of exercise extremely popular with 
the younger children, who are not sufficiently active to take part in the other 
exercises. Each swing consists of two distinct parts : LA piece of 2-inch 
deal, 1 foot wide and 3 feet long, one end of which is sunk firmly in the 
ground, the other projectmg 18 inches above the surface. At each edge of 
this piece is screwed on an iron plate, with. an eye to receive the iron pivot 
on which the upper piece works. The upper, or horizontal piece, is made of 
2-inch plank,- 1 foot wide and 12 feet long. At each end of this piece three 
handles, formed of U-inch deal, are strongly mortised in, 1 foot apart, thus 
forming seats for three children at each end. Between the handles the 
plank should be rounded at the edges, so as to form an easy seat. At the 
under surface of each end a small block of wood is fixed, to prevent the 
plank wearing by striking the ground. 

The above directions should be adhered to. If the support be made lower, 
the motion of the swing is much lessened; if the plank be made shorter, or 
the support higher, the swing approaches too nearly to the perpendicular, 
and serious accidents may ensue from the children being thrown yiolently 
from the seals. The whole should be made as stout as recommended, other- 
wise it is apt to break from the violent action. 




The Double Inclined Plane is adapted more especially for the younger chil- 
dren. It consists merely of a support of two-inch deal, 1 foot wide, and pro- 
jecting 3 feet from the ground. On this is laid the ends of two planks, each 
12 feet long, 1 foot wide, and U inch in thickness. On the upper surface of 
each plank may be nailed, at intervals of eight or ten inches, small cross- 
pieces, to prevent the feet slipping. 




The use of the inclined plane is, that by ascending and descending it, chil- 
dren acquire a facility in balancing themselves. The exercise is beneficial, 
as it calls into actionthe muscles of the legs and even of the body. It also 
furnishes an excellent situation to jump from, as the children can themselves 
vary the height of the leap at pleasure. 

The general use of all these various exercises is, that the different muscles 
of the body may be strengthened, and the children thus fitted for a future life 
of labor, and better prepared to escape in case of accidents. 



42 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The house should stand in a dry and airy situation, large enough to allo»v 
a spacious play ground. >« o pains should be spared on this principal and par- 
amount department of a proper infant school. The more extensive the 
ground may hs, the better ; but the smallest size for 200 children ought to be 
100 feet in length, by at least 60 in breadth. It should be waUed round, not 
so much to prevent the children from straying, as to exclude intruders upon 
them, while at play : for this purpose, a wall or close paling, not lower than 
six feet high, will be found sufficient. With the exception of a flower border, 
from four to six feet broad all round, lay the whole ground, after leveling and 
draining it thoroughly, with small binding gravel, which must be always kept 
in repair, and well swept of loose stones. Watch the gravel, and prevent the 
children making holes in it to form pools in wet weather ; dress the flower 
border, and keep it always neat ; stock it well with flowers and shrubs, and 
make it as gay and beautiful as possible. Train on the walls cherry and other 
fruit trees and currant bushes ; place some ornaments and tasteful decora- 
tions in different parts of the border — as a honeysuckle bower, occ, and sepa- 
rate the dressed ground from the graveled area by a border of strawberry 
plants, which may be protected from the feet of the children by a skirting of 
wood on the outside, three inches high, and painted green, all round the 
ground. Something even approaching to elegance in the dressing and decking 

of the playground, will afford a lesson which may contribute to refinement 

and comfort for hfe. It will lead not only to clean and comfortable dwellings. 

but to a taste for decoration and beauU", which will tend mainly to expel 

coarseness, disconifort, dirt, and vice, from the economj- of the humbler 

classes. 

For the excellent and safe exercise afforded by the Rotary Swing;, erect, at 

the distance of thirty feet from each other, two posts or masts, from sixteen 

to eighteen feet high above the ground ; nine inches diameter at the foot, di- 
minishing to seven and a 

half at top ; of good well- ^ 

seasoned, hard timber; "^ 

charred ^vith fire, about 

three feet under ground, 

fixed in sleepers, and 

boimd at top with a strong 

iron hoop. In the mid- 
dle of the top of the post 

is sunk perpendicularly 

a cylindrical hole, ten 

inches deep, and two 

inches in diameter, made 

strong by an iron ring 

two inches broad within 

the top, and by a piece of 

iron an inch thick to fill 

up the bottom, tightly 

fixed in. A strong pivot 

of iron, of diameter to 

turn easily in the socket 

described, but with as 

little lateral play as pos- 
sible, is placed vertically 

in the hole, its upper end 

standing 4 inches above 

it. On this pivot, as an 

axle, and close to the 

top of the post, but so as 

to turn easily, is fixed a 

wheel of iron, twenty- 
four inches diameter, 

strengthened by foui 




Hbt&ry Swing. 



PLAN FOR INFANT SCHOOL HOUSE AND GROUNDS. 43 

spokes, something like a common roasting-jack wheel, but a little larger. The 
rim should be flat, two inches broad, and half an inch thick. In this rim are 
six holes or eyes, in which rivet six strong iron hooks, made to turn in the 
holes, to prevent the rope from twisting. To these hooks are fixed six well- 
chosen ropes, an inch diameter, and each reaching down to within two feet of 
the ground, having half-a-dozen knots, or small wooden balls, fixed with nails, 
a foot from each other, beginning at the lower extremity, and ascending to 
six feet from the ground. A tin cap, like a lamp cover, is placed on the top 
of the whole machine, fixed to the prolongation of the pivot, and a little larger 
than the wheel, to protect it from wet. To this, or to the wheel itself, a few 
waggoners' bells appended, would have a cheerful eifect on the children. 
The operation of this swing must, from the annexed cut, bo obvious. Four, 
or even six children, lay hold of a rope each, as high as they can reach, and, 
starting at the same instant, run a few steps in the circle, then suspend them- 
selves by their hands, drop their feet and run again when fresh impulse is 
wanted ; again swing round, and so on. A child of three or four years old, 
will often fly several times round the circle without touching the ground. 
There is not a muscle in the body which is not thus exercised ; and to render 
the exercise equal to both halves of the body, it is important that, after sever- 
al rounds in one direction, the party should stop, change the hands, and go 
round in the opposite direction. To prevent fatigue, and to equalize the ex- 
ercise among the pupils, the rule should be, that each six pupils should have 
thirty or forty rounds, and resign the ropes to six more, who have counted 
the rotations. 

Toys being discarded as of no use, or real pleasure, the only plaything of 
the playground consists of bricks for building, made of wood, four inches by 
two and one and a-half. Some hundreds of these, very equally made, should 
be kept in a large box in a corner of the ground, as the quieter children delight 
to build houses and castles with them ; the condition, however, always to be, 
that they shall correctly and conscientiously replace in the box the full com- 
plement or tale of bricks they take out ; in which rule, too, there is more than 
one lesson. 

In a corner of the playground, concealed by shrubbery, are two water clos- 
ets for the children, with six or eight seats in each ; that for the boys is sepa- 
rate from, and entered by, a different passage from that for the girls. Sup- 
ply the closets well with water, which, from a cistern at the upper end, shall 
run along with a slope under all the seats, into a sewer, or a pit in the ground. 
See that the closets are in no way misused, or abused. The eye of the teach- 
er and mistress should often be here, for the sake both of cleanliness and 
delicacy. Mr. Wilderspin recommends the closets being built adjoining the 
small class-room, with small apertures for the teacher's eye in the class-room 
wall, covered with a spring lid, and commanding the range of the place. 
There is nothing in which children, especially in the humbler ranks, require 
more training. 

The annexed cut 
represents an infant 
school-room, modi- 
fied in a few unim- 
portant particulars, 
from the ground plan 



P 



? z 



recommended by 
Mr. Wilderspin in 
his'''' Early Educa- 
tion,'''' published in 
1840. The original 
plan embraces a 
dwelling for the 

teacher's family, and two school-rooms, one for the boys and the other for the 
girls, each school having a gallery, class-room, and playground. The school- 
room is about 60 feet long by 38 wide, and the class-rooms each 13 ft. by 10. 
D. Desks and Seats. G. Gallery, capable of accommodating 100 children. 



44 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE, 



Flan of District School-House e^* Glocester, R. L 




The above cut represents the front elevation of a new school-house erected 
in District No. 13. in the to\ni of Glocester. Rhode Island, "vrhich. for location, 
neatness, and proportion in the external appearance, mode of seating, -w-arm- 
ing and ventilation, can be consulted as a safe model for small agricultural 
districts. The cost of the building and forninire \ras S600. The st}-le and 
arrangement of the seats and desks is indicated in Figures 3 and 4 The end 
pieces are of cast iron, and so shaped, as to facilitate the sweeping of the room, 
and the pupils getting in and out of their seats, and at the same time are firm- 
ly attached to the floor by screws. This building i« 30 feet by 20 feet. 

The room is heated hj Mod's VentUodno- School Store, designed both for wood 
and hard coal. Fresh air is introduced irom outside of the building by a flue 
beneath the floor, and is warmed by passing along the heated surfaces of the 
stove as indicated in the following section. 

Fig. 2. 



A chamber, for coal or 
wood. 

A revolving grate with a cam 
moiion, by which the ashes 
are easily detached and made 
to drop into the ash-pit be- 
low. 

Ash-pit, by which also the 
draught can be regulated, and 
the stove made an air-Ught 
Duct, or flue under the floor. 
by which fresh air from with- 
out is admitted imder and 
around the stove, and circu- 
lates in the direction indi- 
cated by the arrows. 




DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN GLOCESTER. 



45 



The smoke-pipe is carried in the usual way, high enough to prevent any 
injurious radiation of heat upon the heads of the pupils below, to the centre of 
the opposite end of the room, where, after passing through the ceiling, it enters 
the ventilating flue, which, commencing at the floor, is carried up through the 
attic and out above the roof, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The heat of the 
smoke-pipe produces a lively upward current of the air in the upper portion 
of the ventilating flue, sufficient to draw off' the lower stratum of air near the 
floor, and at the same time draw down, and diffuse equally through the room, 
the fresh air which is introduced and warmed by the stove at the opposite end. 



A — Front entrance. 

B — Girls' Entrance and lobby. 

C— Boys' do. do. 

D — Teachers' platform. 

E — Seat and desk, for the pupils. 

S — Mott's ventilating school stove. 

V — Flu.e for ventilation. 



F — Seats for classes at recitation. 

d — Teacher's desk. 

e — Library of reference in front of 
teacher's desk. 

c — Closets for school library and ap- 
paratus. 

f — Fence dividing back yard. 




4g school architecture. 

Plan and Description of School-House in Windsor, Ct. 




The building stands 60 ft. from the highway, near the center of an ele- 
vated lot \vhich slopes a little to the south and east. Much the larger por- 
tion of the lot is in front, affording a pleasant play ground, while in the rear 
there is a woodshed, and other appropriate buildings, with a separate yard 
for boys and girls. The walls are of brick, and are hollow, so as to save 
expense in securing the antaes or pilasters, and to prevent dampness. 
This building is 33 ft. 6 inches long, 21 ft. 8 inches wide, and 18 ft. 9 
inches high from the ground to the eaves, including 2 ft. base or under- 
pinning. 

The entries A A, one for boys and the other for girls, are in the rear of 
the building, through the woodshed, which, with the yard, is also divided by 
a partition. Each entry is 7 ft. 3 inches, by 9 ft. 3 inches, and is suppKed 
with a scraper and mat for the feet, and shelves and hooks for outer gar- 
ments. 

The school-room is 24 ft. 5 inches long, by 19 ft. 4 inches wide, and 15 
ft. 6 inches high in the clear, allowing an area of 472 ft, including the re- 
cess for the teacher's platform, and an allowance of 200 cubic feet of air to 
a school of 3G. 

The teachers platform B, is 5 ft. 2 inches wide, by 6 ft. deep, including 
3 ft. of recess, and 9 inches high. On it stands a table, the legs of which 
are set into the floor, so as to be firm, and at the same time movable, in 
case the platform is needed for declamation, or other exercises of the 
scholars. Back of the teacher is a range of shelves b, aheady supplied vriXh a 
library of near 400 voliunes, and a globe, outline maps, and other apparatus. 
On the top of the case is a clock. A blackboard 5 ft. by 4, is suspended 
on weights, and steadied by a groove on each end, so as to admit of being 
raised and lowered by the teacher, directly in front of the book case, and in 
full view of the whole school. At the bottom of the blackboard Ls a trough to 
receive the chalk and the sponge, or soft cloth. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, WINDSOR. 



47 




The passages D D, are 2 ft wide, and extend round the room ; E E are 
15 inches, and allow of easy access to the seats and desks on either hand. 
F is 5 ft. 8 inches, and in the center stands an open stove C, the pipe of 
which goes into one of the flues, a. The temperatiu'e is regulated by a ther- 
mometer. 

Each pupil is provided with a desk G, and seat H, the front of the former, 
constituting the back or support of the latter, which slopes 2^ inches in 16. 
The seat also inclines a Uttle from the 
edge. Tlie seats vary in height, 
from 9|- inches to 17, the youngest 
diildren occupying tliose nearest the 
pktfonn. The desks are 2 ft. long by 18 inches wide, with a shelf beneath 
for books, and a groove on the back side 6, (Fig. 4) to receive a slate, with 
which each desk is furnished by the district. The upper surface of the 
desk, except 3 inches of the most distant portion, slopes 1 inch in a foot, 
and the edge is in the same perpendicular line with the front of the seat 
The level portion of the desk has a groove running along the hne of the 



'tiie: 



ZSZ 





Top of Desk. 



Section of Seat and Desk. 




slope a, (Fig. 4) so as to prevent pencils and pens from rolling off, and an 
opening c, (Fig 8) to receive an inkstand, which is covered by a metal- 
lic lid. 

The windows, I, three on the north and three on the south side, contain 
eftch 40 panes of 8 by 10 glass, are hung (both upper and lower sash) with 
weights so as to admit of being raised or lowered conveniently. ITie sill.« 
are three feet from the floor. Those on the south side are provided with cur- 
tains and blinds. 

The proper ventilation of the room is provided for by the lowering of the 
tipper sash, and by an opening 14 inches by 18, near the ceiling, into a flue, 
(Fig. 2.) a. which leads into the open air. This opening can be enlarged, 
diminished, or entirely closed by a shutter controlled by a cord. 



48 



SrEOOL ARCIHTECTURE. 



Plax of District School-House ix Barses'gtox. R. I 




The above cut represents in perspective ihe new school-house in District !No 
2, in the town of Barringron, Rhode Island — the most attractive, convenieni. 
and complete structure of the kind in any agricultural district in the Stale — and. 
it is believed, in Xew England. 

The house stands back from the highway in a lot. of an acre in extent, and 
commands an extensive view up and down iXarraganset Bay; and of the rich 
cultivated fields for miles in every other direction. 

The building is 40 feet long by "25 wide, and 12 feet high in the clear, and 
is built afrer working plans drawn by Mr. Teft, of Providence. 

The school-room is calculated to accommodate 64 pupils, with seats and 
desks each for two papils, similar to the folowing cut, and arranged as in 
Figure 3. 

The end-piece, or supports, botli of the desk and seat, are of cast-iron, anc' 
the wood-work is attached by screws. They are made of eight sizes, giving a 
seat from ten inches to seventeen, and a desk at the edge next to the scholar 
from seventeen to twentv-six inches from the floor. 




Each pupil, when properly seated, can rest his feet on the floor without the 
muscle of the thigh pressing hard upon the front edge of the seat,, and with a 
support for the muscles of the back. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN BARRINGTON. 



49 



The yards and entrance for the boys and girls are entirely separate, and each 
is appropriately fitted up with scraper, mats, broom, water-pails, sink, hooks 
and shelves. 



P E 



'W^\ 








A — Front entrance. 

B — Girls' entrance and lobby, fitted up with mats, scrapers, hooks, shelves. 

C — Boys' entrance. 

D — Teacher's platform. 

S — Boston Ventilating Stove. 

V — Flue for ventilation surmounted, by Emerson's Ejector. 

L — Cases for library. 

E — Closets for apparatus, &c. 

The school is well supplied with blackboards, maps, globes, and diagrams, 
and such other instrumentalities as are necessary and useful in the studies 
usually taught in a district school. 

There is abundance of unoccupied space around the sides of the room and 
between the ranges of desks to allow of the free movements of the teacher and 
of the pupils, in passing to and from their seats. 

There is also a district library of about 600 volumes, containing a large 
number of books of reference, such as Dictionaries, Encyclopedia, and a va- 
riety of the best text books in the several studies of the school, to enable the 
teacher to extend his knowledge, and illustrate his recitations by additional 
information. 

There are about one hundred volumes selected with reference to the youngest 
class of children, and about 400 volumes in the different departments of useful 
knowledge, calculated for circulation among the older pupils, in the families 
of the district generally. 

The maps, apparatus and library were purchased by the Commissicmer of 
Public Schools at an expense of $250, which was contributed by five or six 
individuals. The building, furniture and land, cost about $1200. 

,The school-room is warmed and ventilated under the direction of Mr. Gard- 
ner Chilson, Boston, by one of the Boston Ventilating Stoves, and by a flue 
constructed similar to those recently introduced into the Boston Public School 
houses by Dr. Henry G. Clark, and sunnounted by Emerson's Ejector. 

A cut and description of this stove, and of Motfs Ventilating Stove for burn- 
ing wood as well as coal, is given on the next page. 

The flue for ventilation is carried up in the partition wall, and is constructed 
of well seasoned boards, planed smooth on the inside. 

4 



50 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

SCHOOL FOR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY PUPILS. 




MMMMEm 
(IfflMIOfflMfflli 

mfflmooflooo 



Ho 



51 feet bv 31 fee: o'j-^ide.] [S;ale 15 fee: to the inch. 

D. Entrance door. E. Entry. F. Fireplace. C. Wood closet. T. Teachers plat- 
form, a. Apparatus shelves, t. Air tube beneath the floor, d. Doors, g. Globes. I. Li- 
brarj- shelves, m. Masters table and seat. p. Passages, r. Recitation seats. 5. Schol' 
ars* desks and seats, rs. Stairs to recitation rooms in the attic, r. Tentilator. u-. Win- 
dows, b. Movable blackboard, a s. Air space behind the fireplace. 



SCHOOL FOR FORTY-EIGHT PUPILS. 




D. Entrance door. E. Entry. F. Fireplace. C. Wood closet, or recitation room 
T. Teacher's platform, a. Apparatus shelves, t. Air tube beneath the floor, d. Doors 
g. Globes. 1. Library shelves, m. Masters table and seat. p. Passages, r. Recitation 
seats, s. Scholars' desks and seats, r. Ventilator, w. Windows, b. Movable black- 
board, a. s. Air space behind the fireplace. 



PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE BY MR. MANN. 



51 





r^^ 



A. Represents the teacher's desk. B B. Teacher's platform, from 1 to 2 ft. in height. 
C. Step for ascending the platform. L L. Cases for books, apparatus, cabinet, _&c. 
H. Pupils' single desks, 2 ft. by 18 inches. M. Pupils' seat, 1 ft. by 20 inches. /. Aisles, 
1 ft. 6 inches in width. D. Place for stove, if one be used. E. Room for recitation, for 
retiring in case of sudden indisposition, for interview with parents, when necessary, «fec. 
It may also be used for the library, &c. F F F F F. Doors into the boys' and girls' 
entries — from the entries into the school-room, and from the school-room into the recita* 
tion room, G G G G. Windows. The windows on the sides are not lettered. 

For section of seat and desk constructed after Mr. Mann's 
plan, see p. 47. To avoid the necessity of fitting up the 
same school-room for old and young, and the inefficiency of 
such country schools as we now have, Mr. Mann proposed 
in this Report a union, for instance of four districts which 
did not cover more than four miles square, and the erection 
of four primary school-houses, (a a a a) for the younger chil- 
dren of each district, to be taught by female teachers, and 
one central or high school, (A) for the older children of the 
four districts, taught by a well qualified male teacher. This 
plan is recommended for its wise use of the means of the 
districts, and the efficiency of the instruction given. 



2 m 
a 


2 m 
a 


a 


a 



52 SCHOOL ARCHlTECnrRE. 

Plan of School-House ix CzntPwEtille. Wakwick. R. I. 



The following plan presents a mode of seating a District School-House sim- 
ilar to that adopted in seTeial public school-houses in the cirr cf ;^^eT^ Ycrk. 



„ 



i D 



19 


~ ' - r 


: 


: ' 


: 


- 




Z \ z \ 

— ~ 1 


^ 


- \ 


-■ 




_f^ 


X 1 X 1 -_ 


_^L: 


-> 





The :':^ii:r:s- is 50 leer Iclz ,': = : 
A— Porck 

B — Girls' entrance and lobby. 
C— Bovs" do. 

D — Teachers platform- 
E — Mort's school desk and chair. | 

The above mode of seating has been adopted in other districts, and in one in- 
stance, with the desks attached at one end to the wall, as in the following plan 
recommended by Hon. Ira Mayhew. There are serious objections to this ar- 
rangement of the seats and desk. 



B. — Re;itadon-ioom lor assistanL 
S — S::Te. 
T — Smoke flue. 
|V — ^Flue for ventilator. 




D, entrance and inner doors. W, windows. E. entries, lighted over doors, 
one for boys and the other for girls. A, teachers platform.^ B, blackboard] 
reaching entirely across the end of the house. T, teachers desk. H. desks 11 
feet long, except the two next the entrance doors. C, Mott's patent cast-iron 
chairs. S stove. O. an air tube under the floor, through which pure air from 
without is introduced beneath the stove. L, shelves for library, apparatus, etc. 



PLAN OF DISTRICT SOHOOL-HOUSE. 



53 



The follow'ing plan, although not followed throughout in any school-house in 
Rhode Island, presents substantially the internal arrangement which has been 
adopted in several instances, as in the school-house at Peacedale^in South 
Kingston, at Carolina Mills in Richmond, and in the lower room of the acad- 
emy in Kingston. 



^T 



c 









o 







" 





— ' 





~ 





~ 







o 







_ 





_ 












o 










o 







"" 


o 









- 


I 


o 




- 


_J 


o 







_ 







o 





S" 



o[~|o|~]c 


5|~~|o[~]o[~]ol~|c 


)^ 


o|Jo[Jc 


^lj^lj^li^li^ 


:>[_ 




o 
o 



The following cut, whicli is copied from a plan of a district school-house 
recommended by Dr. Lord, Superintendent of the common schools of Columbus, 
Ohio, presents the plan of several district and village school-houses erected 
in Rhode Island. The house is 26 feet by 36 feet on the ground. 




A — Entry for girls, 8 feet square. 
C — do. for boys, do. do. 

B — Library and apparatus room. 
E — Recitation seats. 
D — Teacher's platform. 



H G — Seat and desk for two pupilSj 

4 feet long. 
F — Aisles, 2 feet wide. 
I — do. 18 inches wide. 



54 



SCHOOL-HOrSES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Plan of District ScHooL-norsE ix Greenland, X. H. 

The bailding is 50 feet long by 30 feet wide, and 12 feet high in the clear. 
It is built of brick. A large entry (E), is partitioned oil from the school-room. 
and fitted up not only to receive the hats, bonnets. >k:c.. of the pnpils. but to 
accommodate all the pnpils in rainy weather during recess, as well as those 
who reside at a distance, when they arrive at the school-house before the 
school-room is opened, and those who may be obliged to stay during recess. 
The entry and the school-room is heated by a large stove (S) placed in the 
partition. The teacher's platform (P) is placed at the end of the school-room, 
and is raised one step above the floor. Back of the teacher, along the wall, 
are cases (B) for apparatus, and a well-selected library of 200 vols. There 
are 43 separate desks of difierent heights, framed on posts permanently fixed 
to the timbers of the floor, and fitted with seats of corresponding heights set in 
cast iron frames secured to the floor ; both seats and desks are stained and 
varnished. 




GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 



Plans of School-Houses for two or more Schools. 



55 



Before describing a few of the best school-houses which have 
been recently erected in cities and large villages, for two or more 
schools of different grades in the same building, a brief considera- 
tion of the importance of classification, or gradation, as applied to 
the schools of a district, or town, cannot be deemed irrelevant. 

To enable children to derive the highest degree of benefit from 
their attendance at school, they should go through a regular course 
of training in a succession of classes, and schools arranged according 
to similarity of age, standing, and attainments, under teachers pos- 
sessing the qualifications best adapted to each grade of school. The 
practice has been almost universal in New England, and in other 
states where the organization of the schools is based upon the 
division of the territory into school districts, to provide but one 
school for as many children of both sexes, and of all ages from four 
to sixteen years, as can be gathered in from certain territorial limits, 
into one apartment, under one teacher ; a female teacher in summer, 
and a male teacher in winter. The disadvantages of this practice, 
both to pupils and teachers, are great and manifold. 

There is a large amount of physical suffering and discomfort, as 
well as great hinderances in the proper arrangement of scholars and 
classes, caused by crowding the older and younger pupils into the 
same school-room, without seats and furniture appropriate to either ; 
and the greatest amount of suff"ering and discomfort falls upon the 
young, who are least able to bear it, and who, in consequence, ac- 
quire a distaste to study and the school-room. 

The work of education going on in such schools, cannot be 
appropriate and progressive. There cannot be a regular course of 
discipline and instruction, adapted to the age and proficiency of 
pupils — a series of processes, each adapted to certain periods in the 
development of the mind and character, the first intended to be fol- 
lowed by a second, and the second by a third, — the latter always 
depending on the earlier, and all intended to be conducted on the 
same general principles, and by methods varying with the work to 
be done, and the progress already made. 

With the older and younger pupils in the same room, there cannot 
be a system of discipline which shall be equally well adapted to both 
classes. If it secures the cheerful obedience and subordination of 
the older, it will press with unwise severity upon the younger 
pupils. If it be adapted to the physical wants, and peculiar tem- 
peraments of the young, it will endanger the good order and habits 
of study of the more advanced pupils, by the frequent change of 
posture and position, and other indulgences which it permits and 
requires of the former. 

With studies ranging from the alphabet and the simplest rudiments 
of knowledge, to the higher branches of an English education, a 
variety of methods of instruction and illustration are called for, 
which are seldom found together, or in an equal degree, in the same 



§11 SCHOOL ARCHrrECTTRE. 

• 

teacher, and which can never be pursued with equal success in the 
same school-room. The elementary principles of knowledge, to be 
made intelligible and interesting to the young, must be presented bv 
a larg€ use of the oral and simultaneous methods. The higher 
branches, especially all mathematical subjects, require patient ap- 
pHcation and habits of abstraction, on the part of the older pupils, 
which can with difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils, amid 
a multiplicity of distracting exercises, movements and sounds. The 
recitations of this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactoiy, 
must be conducted in a manner which requires time, discussion 
and explanation, and the undivided attention both of pupils ai:d 
teachers. 

From the number of class and individual recitations, to be attended 
to during each haK day, these exercises are brief, hurried, and of 
little practical value. They consist, for the most part, of senseless 
repetitions of the words of a book. Instead of being the time and 
place where the real business of teaching is done, where the 
ploughshare of interrogation is driven down into the acquirements of 
each pupil, and his ability- to comprehend clearly, remember accu- 
rately, discriminate wisely, and reason closely, is cultivated and 
tested, — where the dimcult principles of each lesson are developed 
and illustrated, and additional information imparted, and the mind of 
the teacher brought in direct contact with the mind of each pupil, to 
arouse, interest, and direct its opening powers — instead of all this 
and more, the brief period passed in recitation, consists, on the part 
of the teacher, of hearing each individual and class in regular order, 
and quick succession, repeat words from a book ; and on the part of 
the pupils, of saying their lessons, as the operation is significantly 
described by most teachers, when they summon the class to the 
stand. In the mean time the order of the school must be maintained, 
and the general business must be going forward. Little children 
without any authorized employment for their eyes and hands, and 
ever active curiosity, must be made to sit still, while ever}- muscle is 
aching from suppressed activity- ; pens must be mended, copies set, 
arithmetical difficulties solved, excuses for tardiness or absence re- 
ceived, questions answered, whisperings allowed or suppressed, and 
more or less of extempore discipline administered. Were it not a 
most ruinous waste of precious time, — did it not involve the deaden- 
ing, crushing, distorting, dwarfing of immortal faculties and noble 
sensibilities, — were it not an utter perversion of the noble objects 
for which schools are instituted, it would be difficult to conceive of 
a more diverting farce than an ordinar}- session of a large public 
school, whose chaotic and discordant elements have not been reduced 
to system by a proper classification. The teacher, at least the con- 
scientious teacher, thinks it any thing but a farce to him. Com- 
pelled to hurr}- from one study to another, the most diverse, — from 
one class to another, requiring a knowledge of methods altogether 
distinct, — from one recitation to another, equally brief and unsatis- 
factory, one requiring a liveliness of manner, which he does not feel 
and cannot assume, and the other closeness of attention and abstrac- 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 57 

tion of thought, which he cannot give amid the miiUipUcity and 
variety of cares, — from one case of disciphne to another, pressing on 
him at the same time, — he goes through the same circuit day after 
day, with a dizzy brain and aching heart, and brings his school to a 
close with a feeling, that with all his diligence and fidelity, he has 
accomplished but little good. 

But great as are the evils of a want of proper classification of 
schools, arising from the causes already specified, these evils are 
aggravated by the almost universal practice of employing one 
teacher in summer, and another in winter, and different teachers 
each successive summer and winter. Whatever progress one 
teacher may make in bringing order out of the chaotic elements of a 
large public school, is arrested by the termination of his school 
term. His experience is not available to his successor, who does 
not come into the school until after an interval of weeks or months, 
and in the mean time the former teacher has left the town or state. 
The new teacher is a stranger to the children and their parents, is 
unacquainted with the system pursued by his predecessor, and has 
himself but little or no experience in the business ; in consequence, 
chaos comes back again, and the confusion is still worse confounded 
by the introduction of new books, for every teacher prefers to teach 
from the books in which he studied, or which he has been accus- 
tomed to teach, and many teachers cannot teach profitably from any 
other. Weeks are thus passed, in which the school is going through 
the process of organization, and the pupils are becoming accustomed 
to the methods and requirements of a new teacher — some of them 
are put back, or made to retrace their studies in new books, while 
others are pushed forward into studies for which they are not pre- 
pared ; and at the end of three or four months, the school relapses 
into chaos. There is constant change, but no progress. 

This want of system, and this succession of new teachers, goes 
on from term to term, and year to year — a process which would in- 
volve any other interest in speedy and utter ruin, where there was 
not provision made for fresh material to be experimented upon, and 
counteracting influences at work to restore, or at least obviate the 
injury done. What other business of society could escape utter 
wreck, if conducted with such want of system, — with such constant 
disregard of the fundamental principle of the division of labor, and 
with a succession of new agents every three months, none of them 
trained to the details of the business, each new agent acting v/ithout 
any knowledge of the plan of his predecessor, or any well settled 
plan of his own ! The public school is not an anomaly, an excep- 
tion, among the great interests of society. Its success or failure de- 
pends on the existence or absence of certain conditions ; and if 
complete fa,ilure does not follow the utter neglect of these conditions, 
it is because every term brings into the schools a fresh supply of 
children to be experimented upon, and sweeps away others beyond 
the reach of bad school instruction and discipline ; and because the 
minds of some of these children are, for a portion of each dayj left 



53 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURK 

to the action of their own inherent forces, and the more kindly influ- 
ences of nature, the family and society. 

Among these conditions of success in the operation of a system of 
pubHc schools, is such a classification of the scholars as shall bring 
a larger number of similar age and attainments, at all times, and in 
every stage of their advancement, under teachers of the right qualifi- 
cations, and shall enable these teachers to act upon numbers at once, 
for years in succession, and carry them all forward efiectually together, 
in a regular course of instruction. 

The great principle to be reo^arded in the classification, either, of 
the schools of a town or district, or of scholars in the same school, 
is equality of attainments, which will generally include those of the 
same age. Those who have gone over substantially the same groimd, 
or reached, or nearly reached the same point of attainment in several 
studies, should be put together, and constitute, whenever their num- 
bers will authorize it, one school. These again should be arranged 
in different classes, for it is seldom practicable, even if it were ever 
desirable, to have but one class in every study in the same grade of 
school. Even in very large districts, where the scholars are pro- 
moted from a school of a lower grade to one of a higher, after being 
found qualified in certain studies, it is seldom that any considerable 
number will have reached a common standard of scholarship m all 
their studies. The same pupd will have made very difierent prog- 
ress in different branches. He will stand higher in one and lower 
in another- By arranging scholars of the same general division in 
different classes, no pupil need be detained by companions who have 
made, or can make less progress, or be hurried over lessons and sub- 
jects in a superficial manner, to accommodate the more rapid ad- 
vancement of others. Although equality of attainment should be 
reo^arded as the general principle, some regard should be paid to 
age, and other circumstances. A large boy of sixteen, from the 
deficiency of his early education, which may be his misfortune and 
not his fault, ought not to be put into a school or class of little chil- 
dren, ahhough their attainments may be in advance of his. This 
step would mortify and discourage him. In such extreme cases, that 
arrangement will be best which wUl give the individual the greatest 
chance of improvement, with the least discomfort to himself, and 
hindrance to others. Great disparity of age in the same class, or the 
same school, is unfavorable to uniform and efficient discipline, and 
the adaptation of methods of teaching, and of motives to application 
and obedience. Some regard, too, should be had to the preferences 
of individuals, especially among the older pupils, and their probable 
destination in life. The mind comes into the requisitions of study 
more readily, and works with higher results, when led onward by 
the heart ; and the utility of any branch of study, its relations to 
future success in life, once clearly apprehended, becomes a power- 
ful motive to effort. 

Each class in a school should be as large as is consistent with 
thoroughness and minuteness of individual examination, and praci- 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 59 

cable, without bringing together individuals of diverse capacity, 
knowledge, and habits of study. A good teacher can teach a class 
of forty with as much ease as a class of ten, and with far more profit 
tO each mdividual, than if the same amount of time was divided up 
among four classes, each containing one-fourth of the whole number. 
When the class is large, there is a spirit, a glow, a struggle which 
can never be infused or called forth in a small class. Whatever 
time is spent upon a few, which could have been as profitably spent 
on a larger number, is a loss of power and time to the extent of the 
number who were not thus benefited. The recitations of a large 
class must be more varied, both as to order and methods, so as to 
reach those whose attention would wander if not under the pressure 
of constant excitement, or might become slothful from inaction or a 
sense of security. Some studies will admit of a larger number in a 
class than others. 

The number of classes for recitation in the same apartment, by 
one teacher, should be small. This will facilitate the proper division 
of labor in instruction, and allow more time for each class. The 
teacher intrusted with the care of but few studies, and few recita- 
tions, can have no excuse but indolence, or the want of capacity, if 
he does not master these branches thoroughly, and soon acquire the 
most skillful and varied methods of teaching them. His attention 
will not be distracted by a multiplicity and variety of cares, pressing 
upon him at the same time. This principle does not require that 
every school should be small, but that each teacher should have a 
small number of studies and classes to superintend. 

In a large school, properly classified, a division of labor can be 
introduced in the department of government, as well as in that of 
instruction. By assigning the different studies to a sufiicient num- 
ber of assistants, in separate class-rooms, each well qualified to teach 
the branches assigned, the principal teacher may be selected with 
special reference to his ability in arranging the studies, and order of 
exercises of the school, in administering its discipline, in adapting 
moral instruction to individual scholars, and superintending the 
operations of each class-room, so as to secure the harmonious action 
and progress of every department. The talents and tact required for 
these and similar duties, are more rarely found than the skill and 
attainments required to teach successfully a particular study. When 
found, the influence of such a principal, possessing in a high degree, 
the executive talent spoken of, will be felt through every class, and 
by every subordinate teacher, giving tone and efficiency to the whole 
school. 

To facilitate the introduction of these, and similar principles of 
classification, into the organization and arrangements of the schools 
of a town or district, as fast and as far as the circumstances of the 
population will admit, the following provisions should be engrafted 
into the school system of every state. 

1. Every town should be clothed with all the powers requisite to 
establish and maintain a sufiicient number of schools of different 
grades, at convenient locations, to accommodate all the children le- 



60 SCHOOL ARCHITECTTRE. 

siding witliia their respective limits — irrespective of any territorial 
division of tlie town into school districts. 

2. Should provision be made for the creation of territorial school 
districts, a gradation of districts should be recognized, and ever%- 
district having over sixty children of an aje to attend school, should 
be obliged to maintain a primary school under a female teacher for 
the young pupils, and pronde a secondary school for the older and 
more advanced pupils. 

3. Xo village, or populous district, in which two or more schools 
of different grades for the younger and older children respectively, 
can be conveniently established, should be sub-divided into two or 
more independent districts. 

4. Any two or more adjoining districts, in the same, or adjoining 
towns, should be authorized to establish and maintain a secondary 
school for the older and more advanced pupils of such districts, for 
the whole, or any portion of the year. 

5. Any district, not having children enough to require the perma- 
nent establishment of two grades of schools, should be authorized to 
determine the periods of the year in which the public school shall 
be kept, and to determine the age and studies of the children who 
shall attend at any particular period of the year, and also to send the 
older pupils to the secondary school of an adjoining district. 

The extent to which the gradation of schools can be carried, in 
any town or district, and the hmit to which the number of classes 
in any school can be reduced, will depend on the compacmess, 
number, and other circumstances of the population, in that town or 
district, and the number and asre of the pupils, and the studies and 
methods of instruction in that school. A regular gradation of schools 
might embrace Primary-, Secondary and High Schools, with Inter- 
mediate Schools, or departments, between each grade, and Supple- 
mentary Schools, to meet the wants of a class of pupils not provided 
for in either of the above grades. 

1. Primary Schools, as a general rule, should be designed for 
children between the ages of three and eio-ht years, with a further 
classiiication of the very youngest children, when their number will 
admit of it. These schools can be accommodated, in compact villa- 
ges, in the same building with the Secondary or High School ; but 
in most large districts, it will be necessary and desirable to locate 
them in different neighborhoods, to meet the peculiarities of the pop- 
ulation, and facilitate the regular attendance of very young children, 
and relieve the anxiety of parents for their safety on their way to and 
from school. The school-room should be light, cheerful, and large 
enough for the evolutions of large classes — furnished with appropri- 
ate seats, furniture, apparatus and means of visible illustration, and 
having a retired, dry and airi- play-ground, with a shelter to resort to 
in inclement weather, and with flower borders, shrubbery and shade 
trees, which they should be taught to love and respect. The play- 
ground is as essential as the school-room, for a Primari- School, and 
is indeed the imcovered school-room of physical and moral educa- 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 61 

tion, and the place where the manners and personal habits of children 
can be better trained than elsewhere. With them, the hours of play 
and study, of confinement and recreation, must alternate more fre- 
quently than with older pupils. To teach these schools properly, — 
to regulate the hours of play and study so as to give variety, vivacity, 
and interest to all of the exercises, without over-exciting the nervous 
system, or over-tasking any faculty of mind or body, — to train boys 
and girls to mild dispositions, graceful and respectful manners, and 
unquestioning obedience, — to cultivate the senses to habits of quick 
and accurate observation and discrimination, — to prevent the forma- 
tion of artificial and sing-song tones, — to teach the use of the voice, 
and of simple, ready and correct language, and to begin in this way., 
and by appropriate exercises in drawing, calculation, and lessons on 
the properties and classification of objects, the cultivation of the 
intellectual facuhies, — to do all these things and more, require in 
the teacher a rare union of qualities, seldom found in one in a hun- 
dred of the male sex, and to be looked for with the greatest chance 
of success among females, " in whose own hearts, love, hope and 
patience, have first kept school." 

The earlier we can establish, in every populous district, primary 
schools, under female teachers, whose hearts are made strong by 
deep religious principle, — who have faith in the power of Christian 
love steadily exerted to fashion anew the bad manners, and soften 
the harsh and self-willed perverseness of neglected children, — with 
patience to begin every morning, with but little if any perceptible ad- 
vance beyond where they began the previous morning, — with prompt 
and kind sympathies, and ready skill in music, drawing, and oral 
methods, the better it will be for the cause of education, and for ev- 
ery other good cause. 

2. Secondary Schools should receive scholars at the age of eight 
years, or about that age, and carry them forward in those branches 
of instruction which lie at the foundation of all useful attainments in 
knowledge, and are indispensable to the proper exercise and devel- 
opment of all the faculties of the mind, and to the formation of good 
intellectual tastes and habits of application. If the primary schools 
have done their work properly, in forming habits of attention, and 
teaching practically the first uses of language, — in giving clear ideas 
of the elementary principles of arithmetic, geography, and the sim- 
plest lessons in drawing, the scholars of a well conducted secondary 
school, who will attend regularly for eight or ten months in the year, 
until they are twelve years of age, can acquire as thorough knowl- 
edge of reading, arithmetic, penmanship, drawing, geography, history, 
and the use of the language in composition and speech, as is ever 
given in common or public schools, as ordinaril}'' conducted, to chil- 
dren at the age of sixteen. For this class of schools, well qualified 
female teachers, with good health, self-command, and firmness, are 
as well fitted as male teachers. But if the school is large, both a 
male and female teacher should be employed, as the influence of 
both are needed in the training of the moral character and manners. 



go SCHOOL ARCHITECTTTRE. 

Schools of this grade should be furnished with class-rooms for reci- 
tations, and if large, with a female assistant for every thirty pupils. 

3. High Schools should receive pupils from schools of the grade 
below, and carr}^ them forward in a more comprehensive course of 
instruction, embracing a continuation of their former studies, and 
especially of the English language, and drawing, and a knowledge 
of algebra, geometry* and trigonometry, with their applications, the 
elements of mechanics and natural philosophy and chemistry, natural 
history, including natural theology', mental and moral science, politi- 
cal economy, physiolog}-, and the constitution of the United States. 
These and other studies should form the course of instruction, modi- 
fied according to the sex, age, and advancement, and to some extent, 
future destination of the pupils, and the standard fixed by the intelli- 
gence and intellectual wants of the district — a course which should 
give to every young man a thorough English education, preparatory* 
to the pursuits of agriculture, commerce, trade, manufactures, and 
the mechanical arts, and if desired, for college ; and to every young 
woman, a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, and practical 
views of her own duties, and those resources of health, thought, 
manners and conversation, which bless alike the highest and lowest 
stations in life. All which is now done in private schools of the 
highest grade, and where the wants of any considerable portion of 
the community create such private schools, should be provided for 
in the system of public schools, so that the same advantages, with- 
out being abridged or denied to the children of the rich and the 
educated, should be open at the same time to worthy and talented 
children of the poorest parent. In some districts a part of the 
studies of this grade of schools micrht be embraced in the Secondary- 
Schools, which would thus take the place of the High School ; in 
others, the High School could be open for only portions of the year ; 
and in others, two departments, or two schools, one for either sex. 
would be required. However constituted, whether as one depart- 
ment, or two, as a distinct school, or as part of a secondary.- school, 
or an ordinary- district school, and for the whole year, or part of the 
year, something of the kind is required to meet the wants of the 
whole community-, and relieve the public schools from impotency. 
Unless it can be engrafted upon the public school system, or rather 
unless it can grow up and out of the system, as a provision made 
for the educational wants of the whole community, then the system 
will never gather about it the warmth and sustaining confidence and 
patronage of all classes, and especially of those who know best the 
value of a good education, and are willing to spend time and money 
to secure it for their own children. 

4. Intermediate Schools or departments will be needed in large 
districts, to receive a class of pupils who are too old to be continued, 
without wounding their self-esteem, in the school below, or interfering 
with its methods of discipline and instruction, and are not prepared 
in attainments, and habits of study, or from irregular attendance, to 
be arranged in the regular classes of the school above. 

Connected with this class of schools there might be opened a 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 



63 



school or department for those who cannot attend school regularly, 
or for only a short period of the year, or who may wish to attend 
exclusively to a few studies. There is no place for this class of 
scholars, in a regularly constituted, permanent school, in a large 
village. 

5. Supplementary Schools, and means of various kinds should be 
provided in every system of public instruction, for cities and large 
villages, to supply deficiencies in the education of individuals whose 
school attendance has been prematurely abridged, or from any cause 
interfered with, and to carry forward as far and as long as practicable 
into after life, the training and attainments commenced in childhood. 

Evening Schools should be opened for apprentices, clerks, and 
other young persons, who have been hurried into active employment 
without a suitable elementary education. ' In these schools, those 
who have completed the ordinary course of school instruction, could 
devote themselves to such studies as are directly connected with 
their several trades or pursuits, while those whose early education 
was entirely neglected, can supply, to some extent, such deficiencies. 
It is not beyond the legitimate scope of a system of public instruc- 
tion, to provide for the education of adults, who, from any cause, 
in early life were deprived of advantages of school instruction. 

Libraries, and courses of familiar lectures, with practical illustra- 
tions, collections in natural history, and the natural sciences, a sys- 
tem of scientific exchanges between schools of the same, and of 
difl^erent towns, — these and other means of extending and improving 
the ordinary instruction of the school-room and of early life, ought 
to be provided, not only by individual enterprise and liberality, but 
by the public, and the authorities entrusted with the care and advance- 
ment of popular education. 

One or more of that class of educational institutions known as 
" Reform Schools," " Schools of Industry," or " Schools for Juvenile 
Off'enders," should receive such children, as defying the restraining 
influence of parental authority, and the discipline and regulations of 
the public schools, or such as are abandoned by orphanage, or worse 
than orphanage, by parental neglect or example, to idle, vicious and 
pilfering habits, are found hanging about places of public resort, pol- 
luting the atmosphere by their profane and vulgar speech, alluring, 
to their own bad practices, children of the same, and other conditions 
of life, and originating or participating' in every street brawl and low- 
bred riot. Such children cannot be safely gathered into the public 
schools ; and if they are, their vagrant habits are chafed by the re- 
straints of school discipline. They soon become irregular, play 
truant, are punished and expelled, and from that time their course is 
almost uniformly downward, until on earth there is no lower point to 
reach. 

Accustomed, as many such children have been from infancy, to 
sights and sounds of open and abandoned profligacy, trained to an 
utter want of self-respect, and the decencies and proprieties of life, 
as exhibited in dress, person, manners and language, strangers to 
those motives of self-improvement which spring from a sense of so- 



04 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

cial, moral and religious obligation, their regeneraUon involves the 
harmoniocs co-operation of earnest pMantkropy, missionary enter- 
prise, and sanctided wisdom. The districts of all our large cities 
-where this class of children are found, are the appropriate field of 
home missions, of unobtrusive personal effort and charity, and of 
systematized plans of local benevolence, embracing friendly inter- 
course with parents, an affectionate interest in the younar, the gather- 
ing of the latter into week-day, infant, and primary schools, and 
schools where the use of the needle, and other forms of labor appro- 
priate to the sex and age of the pupils can be given, the gathering 
of both old and young into Sabbath schools and worshipping assem- 
blies, the circulation of books and tracts, of other than a strictiy 
religious character, the encouragement of cheap, innocent and hu- 
manizing games, sports and festivities, the obtaining employment for 
adults who may need it, and procuring situations as apprentices, 
clerks, &c., for such young persons as may be qualified by age, 
capacity and character. By individual efforts and the combined 
efforts of many, working in these and other ways, from year to year, 
these moral jungles can be broken up, — these infected districts can 
be purified, — these waste places of society can be reclaimed, and 
many abodes of penury, ignorance and vice can be converted by ed- 
ucation, economy and industry, into homes of comfort, peace and joy. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN CENTREMILL. 



66 



Plan and Description of District School-House in Centremill, 
North Providence 




This house was erected after designs by Mr. Teft, of Providence. It 
stands back from the highway, on an elevated site, in the midst of a 
grove, and for beauty of design 
and convenience of arrangement, 
is not surpassed by any similar 
structure in New England. It is 
26 feet by 51, and 13 feet high in 
the clear, with two departments 
on the same floor. 



A, Boys' entry, 6 feet by 10, 

B, Girls' ditto. 

C, Primary department, 20 feet by 
25, with desks and seats attached 
for 70 pupils. 

D, Secondar)', or Grammar depart- 
ment, 25 feet by 25, with desks 
and chairs for 64 pupils; see p. 
120. 

r, Register for hot air. 

tJ, V, Flues for ventilation. 

c, Closets for dinner pails of those 

who come from a distance. 
s. Sink. 



The smoke pipe is carried up be- 
tween the ventilating: flues, and the 
top of the chimney is finished so as to 
accommodate the bell. 




66 



SCHOOL ARCmTECTXTRE. 



Fig. 3. Side Elevatiok. 



O) 



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ARSENAL DISTRICT-SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



67 



Plan of District School-house in Hartford, Conn. 

Fig. I. 




The above cut represents the front elevation of a new school-house erected 
in Arsenal District, in Hartford, after designs by Octavius Jordan, Architect. 
As originally planned there were to be two rooms, as shown in side elevation, 
(Fig. 3.) The largest (Fig. 2) room is forty-five feet long by twenty-five 
wide, with a recitation-room (C) fourteen feet by twelve, and two entries, one 
for boys (A) and one for girls, (B), each twelve feet by six, furnished with sink, 
hooks, &c. There are thirty-two desks, each for two pupils, with sixty-four 
chairs, (page 143, Fig. 2), and thirty-two chairs for young children, (Fig. 3, 
page 129.) The room is warmed by Mott's School Stove, (page 146,) and ven- 
tilated by flues in the walls, opening at the top and bottom of the room, which 
is fifteen feet high in the clear. The material is brick, and the cost $1800. 




Fig. 2. Ground Plan. 



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DoDo°DoDoDoDoDoD 




68 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan of School-House at Washtn-gtox Village rx Co^-entry, R. L 

The following cut presents the ground plan of the ne^ school-house in the 
village of "Washington, in the town of Coventry, R. I. The location is on the 
high ground in the rear of the village, and commands an extensive prospect in 
every direction. The siie and yard, occupying one acre, was given to the dis- 
trict by Governor Whipple. The whole structure, without and within, is an 
ornament to the village, and ranks among the best school-houses in Rhode 
Island. 



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-Desks for two, with iron end-piece. 

-Chairs supported on iron pedestal. 
-Register for hot air. 
•Flue for ventilation, within which 
is carried up the smoke-pipe. 



A — Boy's entrance. i F- 

B— Girl's entrance. G- 

C — Primary school-room. j H- 

D — Secondary, or Grammar Depart- R- 

ment. 
E — Teacher's platform. 

The two school-rooms can be thrown into one, for any general exercise of 
the two schools, by sliding doors. 

The two roorns are imiformly heated by a furnace in the basement. 

There is a well, sink, basin, mats, scrapers, bell, and all the necessary fixtures 
and appendages of a school-house of the first class. 

The cost of the building and fiiruirure was S-2,300. 

The district possesses a library of upwards of four hundred volumeSj the cost 
of which was raised by subscription in the District. 




Albany Normal School Chair and Desk. 



SCHOOL AUCIIITECTURE. 

Plan of a Village School-house in England. 

Fig. 4. 



69 




We are indebted to A. J. Downing, Esq. for the reduced cuts of a plan by J. 
Kendal, for a National School near Brentwood, in England. It affords accom- 
modation for sixty children. The door is sheltered by a porch, and on the 
other side is a covered waiting-place for the children coming before school- 
hours. The cost, with the belfry, was $750. A house in this old English 
domestic character would give a pleasing variety to the everlasting sameness of 
our rural school architecture. 



Fig. 5. Ground Plan. 




SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Union School-HousEj at Wooxsocket and Chepachet, R. I. 

By the school law of Rhode Island, two or more adjoining school districts in 
the same, or adjoining towns, may, by concurrent vote, agree to unite for the 
purpose of maintaining a secondaiy or grammar school for the older and more 
advanced pupils of such associating districts. Under this provision the four 
school districts in the town of Cumberland, which comprise the village of 
Woonsocket, voted to imite and provide a school-house for the more advanced 
pupils, leaving the younger to be accommodated in their respective districts. 
The Union school-house is located on a beautiful site, the donation of Edward 
Harris, Esq., and is built substantially after the plan of the "VVarren Public 
school-house, already described, at a cost of $7,000. The following are the front 
and side elevations/as originally drawn by ^Ir. Teft, but not adopted by the 
committee. 




Side Eijivation. 




Fboxt Elevatiox. 

Under the provision above cited, the three districts into which the village of 
Chepachet, in the town of Glocester, is divided, voted to establish a Union 
School, and to provide a suitable house for the same. The building is 50 feet by 
34, with two stories, and stands in the centre of a large lot, a little removed from 
the main street, and is the ornament and pride of the village. The lower floor 
is divided into two apartments ; one for the Primary, and the other for an Inter- 
mediate School, for tne younger pupils of the village, while the Union or Sec- 
ondary School occupies'the whole of the second floor. 



UNION SCHOOL-HOUSE IN CHEPACHET. 



71 



Fig. 1.— Plan op First Floor. 

V7^ \M'g/ 




A — Entrance for Girls to Secondary School, U. 

B— " " Boys " « « 

C — " " Girls to Primary, E, and Intermediate School, F. 

D— " " Boys " " " « " 

E — Primary School-room, 

F — Intermediate " 

U— Secondaiy " L — Manton Glocester Library of 900 volumes. 

R — Recitation room. S — Stove. V — Flue for ventilation. 

G — Seat and desk attached, for two pupils, with iron ends. 

Fig. 2.— Plan of Second Floor. 



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72 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTX7BE. 



Report of Nathan Bishop, Esq.. ox the Public School-Houses 

OF Provides'ce. R. I. 



Primary School-Houses. 

These buildings are located in different parts of the city, and are designed 
for the accommodation of children from four to six or seven years of age, or 
untn they are prepared to enter the intermediate schools. 




No. 1. — View of a Primarr School-House. 



These school-houses stand back from thirty to sixty feet from the line of 
the street, and near the center of lots varying "from eighty to one hundred feet 
in breadth, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet in length. 
Each lot is inclosed by a neat and substantial fence, six feet high, and is 
divided into two yards-^ne for boys and the other for girls — -vrith suitable 
out-buildings, shade trees, and shrubbery. 

These houses are each forty feet long' by thirty-three feet wide, with twelve- 
feet posts, bmlt of wood, in a' plain, substantial 'manner, and, with the fences, 
are painted white, presenting a neat and attractive exterior. 

The entrance is iuio a lobby [A] and thence into an open area, where stands 
the stove [a]. A portion of the lobby is appropriated to bins for charcoal [c] 
and anthracite [d], which is the fuel used in all the schools ; the remainder [Bj 
is occupied by a sink, and as depositories for brooms, brushes, ^c. Each 
room is arched, thereby securing an average height of thirteen feet, with an 
opening in the center of the arch, two feet in diameter, for ventilation. The 
ventilator is controlled by a cord passing over a pulley, and descending into 
the room near the teachers desk [Z-]. In each end of the attic is a ciicular 
window, which, turning on an axis, can be opened and closed by cords, in the 
same maimer as the ventilator. 



PRIMARY SCUOOL HOTTSE, PROVIDENCE. 



73 




I I I t I 

I I I s I 





No. 2. — Interior of a Primary School-House. 



The teacher's platform [C] is five feet wide, twenty feet long, and seveB 
inches high, with a black-board ten feet long and three feet wide on the wall 
in the rear. 

The floor is of inch and a half plank, tongued and grooved ; and, for the 
purpose of securing warmth and firmness, and avoiding noise, is laid oa 
cement 

The windows, eleven in number, of twenty-four lights, of seven by nine 
glass, are hung with weights, and furnished with inside blinds. The sides of 
the room and entries are ceiled all round with wood as high as the window- 
sills, which are four feet from the floor. The rest of the walls are plastered, 
and covered with white hard finish. Each room is provided with sixty seats 
[s] and desks [^], placed in six ranges ; each range containing ten seats, and 
desks, of three diflferent sizes, and each seat and desk accommodating tv/o 
scholars, or one hundred and twenty in all. 

The center aisle is three feet and a half wide, and each of the others about 
two feet. 

The desks are over three feet long, by sixteen inches mde, with a shelf 
beneath for books. The upper surface of the desk [a], except about two 
inches at the top [b\ slopes one inch and a half in a foot. 



74 



SCHOOL ARCHTTECTTRE. 



* « 




Xo. 3.— Yie-w of Top of a Desk, and Sectional View of Primarj Seat and Desks. 

The front of the desk, constitatmg the back of the next seat, slopes one 
inch in a foot. The seat also inclines a very little firom the edge. The seats 
are of four different sizes, varying from seven to ten inches wide, and from 
nine to fourteen inches in height, the lo-^est being nearest the teachers 
plaiforaL 



Intermediate Schooi>Houses, 



All the buildings of this class are two stories high, affording accommoda- 
tions for two schools, a primary and an intermediate. These houses are 
generally in pleasant situations, on large lots, varying in size from one hundred 
feet wide by one hundred and twenty feet long,' to one htmdred and fifty by 
two hundred feet. 

Rows of shade trees, consisting of ebns, lindens, and maples, are planted 
along the side-walks and the fences inclosing the yards; and evergreens, the 
motmtain ash, and other ornamental trees, are placed within the inclosures. 

These houses are forty-four feet long, by thirty-three feet wide. Some of 
them are built of wood,' the remainder of brick, and all in a tasteful and 
substantial style. 

The rooms'are large, and easily ventilated, being twelve feet in the clear, 
with large openings in the ceding of the upper room, and on the sides in the 
lower room, leading into flues in the waIls,Vhich conduct the fotil air into die 
attic, irom which it escapes at circular windows in the gables of the buildings. 
These flaes and windows can be opened and closed by cords passing over 
pulleys, and descending into the rooms below, where the teachers can control 
tliem'with ease. 





No. 5. — Se^tioni of Veni 



In this cut, the cord [i], passing over the pulley [/], raising [h], hung on 
kinges at [g], opens wholly or partially the venrilat'or [^f], a circular aperture 
three feet in diameter. The plan of ventilating the lower rooms is shown en 



'76 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



the other part of the diagram, in which [a] represents a cord running over a 
pulley, and attached to [c], a board three feet long by one foot -wide, opening 
the space between [b], the top Qf^the lower room, and [d], the floor of the 
upper, leading into the flue [e], asce'nding to the attic. 

The windows, nine in number in each school-room, of twelve lights, of ten 
by sixteen glass, are hung with weights, so as to be easily opened at top and 
bottom, and furnished with Venetian blinds inside, to regulate the amount of 
light admitted. 

The floors are of hard pine boards, an inch and a half thick, and about six 
inches wide, tongued and grooved, and laid on mortar, as a protection against 
fire, for the prevention of noise, and to secure warmth and firmness. All the 
rooms, entries, and stairways are ceiled up with matched boards about four 
feet, as high as the window-sills. The remaining portions of the walls are 
plastered, and coated with white hard finish. 





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No. 6. — ^Interior of an Intermediate School-House. 

The walls of some of these buildings are solid stone-work, faced with 
brick; others are built with double brick walls, as above shown, connected by 
ties of iron or brick. 



INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



11 



As the rooms in the lower stories of this class of buildings are appropriated 
to primary schools, and are furnished in the same manner as those already- 
described, the preceding cut is intended to serve the double purpose of exhibit- 
ing on the first floor only the improvements on the former plan, and, on the 
second, the whole view of a room for an intermediate school. 

The steps \_a, a, a] are broad, granite blocks, with scrapers on each end. 
The side doors [A, A], one for boys, the other for girls, lead into entries, eight 
feet by ten, from which the pupils of the primary schools pass through the 
doors [B, BJ into the main rooms, which differ from those above described, in 
having a space [o, c], two feet wide, on the back part of the rooms, for reading 
and other class exercises ; and the recitation-room, [D], another valuable 
improvement, as it avoids the confusion arising from having two recitations in 
one room at the same time. 

The flight of stairs in each entry, commencing at the points [R, R], and 
ascending in the direction of [1, 2, 3], lands on the open space [P] in the upper 
entry, from which the pupils pass through the doors [C, C] into the school- 
room. 

Coal-bins and convenient closets, for brooms, brushes, &c., are built under 
the stairs, in the lower entries ; and similar closets, for the same purposes, are 
provided in the upper entries. 

The large area [H, H], thirty feet long by seven wide, is the same in both 
the rooms, and is occupied by the principal teacher in each school, for such 
class exercises as may be more conveniently managed there than in the other 
place [o, o], left for the same purpose. The position of the stove [fi] is such as 
not to render it uncomfortably warm on the front seats, and, at the same time, 
not to interfere with the passage of classes through the door [G] into the 
recitation- room [D], which is fourteen feet by ten, and, like all the school- 
rooms, furnished with black-boards. The lower room is lighted by a window 
over the front door, and by the side-lights ; and the upper one by a double or 
mullion window, of sixteen lights, of ten by sixteen glass. 

The side aisles Im, m] are two feet and a half wide ; the others [P, P, &c.] 
are only eighteen inches wide, except the middle one [C], which is three and 
a half feet. The passage across the center of the room is about a foot and a 
half wide, and is very convenient for teachers in passing to the different parts 
of the room, and also for scholars in going to and from their recitations. 

The seats and desks, in the front part of this room, are made and arranged 
on the same plan as those in the primary school-rooms above described, differ- 
ing from them only in being one size larger. The lower end, or foot of each 
perpendicular support, or end-piece, is strongly fastened into a groove in a 
"shoe," or piece ol plank, which, being screwed to the floor, secures the desks 
in a durable maimer, and in a firm position. 

The others are constructed upon a different plan, designed especially for the 
accommodation of pupils while writing. These desks and seats are of three 
different sizes. 




No. 7.— Section of a Writing-Desk and Seat, 



78 SCHOOL ARCHITECTIIEE. 

The top of the desk [a] is of pine, one inch and a half thick, fifteen inches 
wide, and three feet and a half long. These desks are tvrenty-seren inches 
high on the fiont, and twenty-four on the side next to the seats. A space 
about three iaches wide, on the front edge of the top, is planed down to a 
level, and an Lukstand is let into the center of this, even with the surface, and 
covered with a small lid. The ends of these desks are an inch and a half 
thick, and fastened by a strong tenon to the shoe [c], which is screwed to the 
floor. The front of the desk, and the shelf [i], for books, &zc., are inch boards; 
the whole desk, made in the strongest manner, is painted a pleasant green, and 
varnished. In the next smaller size, the same proportion is observed, but all 
the dimensions are one inch kss; and in the third, or smallest size, the dimen- 
sions are all one inch less than in the second. For each desk there are two 
chairs, resting on cast-iron supporters Id], an inch and a quarter in diameter, 
with a wide flange at each end; the upper one, screwed to the imder side of 
the seat [e], is a little smaller than the lower, which is fastened to the floor by 
five stron| screws, rendering the chair almost immovable. The largest size 
seats [e] in these rooms are fourteen inches in diameter and fifteen inches 
high, with backs, twenty-eight inches from [g] to the top, slanting an inch and 
a quarter to a foot. These backs are made with three slats, fastened by strong 
tenons into a top-piece, like some styles of common chairs, and screwed to the 
seat, while the middle one extends down into a socket on the foot of the iron 
standard. The seats, like the desks, are diminished one inch for the middle 
size, and two for the smallest, preserving the proportions in the difiereni sizes, 
which adapts them to the sizes of the desks. 



Gram^ur School-Houses. 



There are six buildings of this class, constructed on the same plan, and of 
the same size. They are seventy feet long by forty wide, with a front pro- 
jection, twenty-eight" feet long by fourteen feet wide. They are located on 
very large lots, varying from one" hundred and fifty to two hundred feet long — 
from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty feet wide. All of them, 
except one, are on comer lots, and all have large open spaces around them. 
These, and all the other public school-houses in the city, are protected with 
Gluimby's lightning-rods, and each is furnished with a bell, which can be heard 
in the remotest parts of its district. 

In the accompanying view, Xo. 9, the engraver has represented 3.few tree?, a 
little larger than any a^ present aroimd these buildings, because he could not 
crowd all the trees and shrubbery into the picture, without obscuring the lower 
part of the house. 

The cut on p. 91 , Xo. 10, is a ground plan, on a reduced scale, of a Grammar 
School-House, including a general view of the cellar, yards, fences, gates, 
sidewalks, >5cc. 

The yards around each of the grammar school-houses contain from 18,000 
to 20,000 square feet, or between a third and half an acre. These grounds are 
inclosed, and divided into three separate yards, by substantial close board 
fences [f.f.f.f], six feet high, neatly made, and painted white. The boys' 
play-groiihd" [B], and that of the girls [G], are large; but the front yard [E] is 
small, and, not being occupied by pupils, is planted with trees and'shrubbery. 
The graveled sidewalks [5, 5, 5], running on two sides of all the grammar school 
lots, and on three of some of them, are shaded by rows of elms, maples, and 
lindens, set near the curb-stones. The gates [A, C, D] and the graveled walks 
[d, d, d] lead to the front and the two side doors of the school-house ; and [/] 
is a large gate for carting in coal, ice. The out-buildings [i, i] are arranged 
with a large number of separate apartments on both side^. all well ventilated, 
each furnished with a door, and the whole surroimded with evergreens. 

In the plan of the projection [H] the stairway [r] leads to the cellar, which 
is seven leet in the clear, and extends under the whole of the main buUding. 
These cellars are well lighted, having eight windows [W, W], with ten lights 
uf seven by nine glass. The windows, being hung with hinges on the upper 



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80 



SCHOOL ARCHrrECTURE. 



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Xo.lO . — Groucd Plan, &c., of a Grammar School-Hoase. 



side, and fastened with hooks and staples at the lower edge, mar be opened br 
raising them intc a horizontal position, where they are fastened with hooks as 
when closed. Wiih this arrangement, it is easy 'to keep the cellars well ven- 
tilated at all seasons. The openings for the admission of coal into the bins 
[o, 0], one for anthracite, and the other for charcoal, are famished with sheet- 
iron shatters, fastening on the iaside. Every school-house has, in the cellar, 
an abtmdant supply of good water, obtained' from a foimtain, or from a well, 
which is generally outside of the building, the water being brought in by a 
pump [P]. A supply of good water for a school-house should nol be consid- 
ered merely as a convenience, but as absolutely necessary. 

The horizontal section of a furnace [F] shows merely the ground plan. 
The cold air passes thtough [a] to the air-chamber, where it is warmed by the 
fires in [^, p\ two cast-iron cylinders, fourteen inches in diameter. 'The 
evaporator [e] holds about fifteen gallons of water, which is kept in a state of 
rapid evaporation, thus supplying the air-chamber with an abundance of 
moisture. 

In the plan and construction of the various parts of these furnaces, special 
pains have been taken to remove all danger of fire — an important considera- 
tion, which should never be overlooked. The furnace is covered with stone, 
thickly coated with mortar, and the under side of the floor above is lathed and 
plastered, not only above the furnace, but at least ten feet fixjm it in every 
direction. 

A full description of the construction and operation of the furnaces used in 
the public school-houses will be given imder another diagram. The cellar 
walls and the stone piers [c, c, c, c, c] are well pointed, and the whole inside, 



GRAMMAR SCHOOL HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



including the wood-work overhead, is neatly whitewashed, giving this apart- 
ment a neat and pleasant appearance. 

The walls of all these buildings are of stone, about two feet thick, faced 
with common brick, and painted a tasteful color. 




No. 11.— Plan of the First Floor of a Grammar School-House. 

There are three entrances to these houses; the front [Aj, and the two side 
doors [B], for boys, and [G], for girls, leading into the entries [F, C, C]. The 
front is a large double door, with a beautiful frontice of fine hammered Q,uincy 
granite. At all the outside doors are two or three hewn granite steps, fur- 
nished with four or six scrapers at each door. 

Pupils belonging to the schools in the lower story pass from the side entries 
into the middle one, and, ascending two steps at [a], enter their respective 
rooms [T, S], which are rather larger than those in the primary and interme- 
diate school-houses, previously described, being thirty-six feet by thirty-two 
inside, and eleven feet high in the clear. 

In each of the entries [C, C] there is a provision [t, t, t, f] for setting up um- 
brellas. It resembles a ladder placed in a horizontal position, and is fastened 
to the ceiling on one side, and supported on the other by substantial posts of 
oak or other strong wood, turned in a tasteful style, and set into the floor. 

The seats and desks in the rooms [T and S] are of the same dimensions, 
and arranged in the same manner as those in the primary and the intermediate 
school-rooms before described. The small iron posts [c, c, c, c], about two and 
a half inches in diameter, supporting the floor above, are placed against the 
ends of the seats, so close as not to obstruct the passages at all. Besides the 
platforms [P, P], twenty feet by six— the tables, three feet by four, for the 
teachers, and the closets [I, I], for brushes, &c., there are black-boards, painted 
upon the walls, extending from the doors [D, D] to the windows, fourteen feet 
long by four wide, with the lines of a stave painted on one end, to aid in 
giving instruction in vocal music. 

6 



82 



SCHOOL ARCHITECXrRE. 



The plan of ventilating these rooms on the fii-st floor is represented by cut 
]So. 5, page S5. Ererj room is proYided with two ventilators, each three feet 
long by about rwelve inches vride, opening into flues of the same dimensions, 
leading into the attic, from ^rhich the impure air escapes at circular windows 
in the gables. These flues should have extended down to the bottom of the 
rooms^with openings on a level with the floors, so that, when the rooms are 
warmed with air ixom the furnaces above the temperature of the human 
breath, they might be ventilated by removing the foul air &omthe lower parts, 
and thus causing fresh, warm air to be slowly settling down upon the scholars 
— a very pleasant and healthftil mode of ventilation. 

These rooms are well warmed by heated air, admitted through registers 
[r, r], eighteen inches in diameter, from the furnace below, from which [p.p] 
tin pipes, fourteen inches iu diameter, convey the air to the grammar school- 
rooms in the second story. 

These rooms are large, with arched ceilings, measuring twelve feet to the 
foot of the arch, and seventeen to its crown. They are each provided with 
two ventilators, three feet and a half in diameter, placed in the crown of the 
arch, about twenry feet apart. 

The entrances to the Grammar School-rooms are by two short flights of 
stairs on a side ; from the lower entries to [s, 5], spaces about three feet square, 



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No. 12. — Plan of a Grammar School-Room. 



and thence to [A, A], spaces three by five feet, extending from the top of the 
stairs to the doors opening into the school-room. 

The masters table [c], as well as tables [d,d], for the assistants, are 
movable. The large area [B,B], being fourteen inches above the floor of the 
room, is eight feet wide by sisty-four long, with large closets [«, «] ai the 
ends, fitted up with shelves, &c., for the use of the teachers. 

The school-room is warmed by healed air, admitted at the registers, [r, rj 
and the recitation-rooms [R, R] in the same maimer, by the small registers, 
lr,r] all of which are connected with the furnace in the cellar by large tin 
pipes or conductors. 



GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



83 



The black-boards, four feet wide, painted upon the hard-finished walls, are 
indicated by the lines [b,b,b, fee] in the recitation-rooms, and along the walls 
behind the master's table, extending on each side to the windows beyond, [e,e] 
making, in each Grammar School, about three hundred square feet of black- 
board. 

The long benches [e, e] are used for seating temporarily new pupils on their 
entering school, until the master can assign them regular seats ; also for seat- 
ing visitors at the quarterly examinations. The space [P, P], a broad step, 
eighteen feet long and two ieet wide, is used for some class exercises on the 
black-boards. The passage \_t, t], about eig-hteen inches wide, running the 
whole length of the room, affords great facility in the movements of pupils to 
and from the recitations and other class exercises. The master's classes gen- 
erally recite in the space [o, o] on the back side of the room, four feet wide 
and sixty-four feet long, where seats are placed for scholars to sit during 
recitation, when it is necessary ; and the same accommodations are provided 
in. the recitation-rooms. 

The windows [W, W, &c.], which are hung with weights, and furnished 
with inside blinds, in the manner before described, contain twelve lights each, 
of ten by sixteen glass, of the strongest kind, the Saranac or Redford glass. 

The quantity of air furnished fo"r each scholar in the public school-rooms is 
a matter of no small importance. The rooms for the primary and the inter- 
mediate schools — the former designed to accommodate one hundred and 
twenty, and the latter only ninety-six pupils— contain between fifteen and six- 
teen thousand cubic feet of atmospheric air. The rooms for the grammar 
schools, intended to accommodate two hundred pupils, contain over thirty-five 
thousand cubic feet, after a suitable deduction for the furniture is made. 

This estimate allows every child, when the rooms are not crowded, about 
one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air for every hour and a half, on the sup- 
position that no change takes place, except at the times of recess, and at the 
close of each session. But the rate at which warm air is constantly coming 
into the rooms from the furnaces, increases the allowance for every child to 
about three hundred cubic feet for every hour and a half 




No. 13. — Transverse Section of a Grammar School-House. 



84 SCHOOL ARCniTECTniE. 

The preceding cut is given in order to show an end vieic, the projection, belfr}', 
rooms, seats, desks, and cellar. An imperfect section of the warming appa- 
ratus is presented, giving an outline of the plan of its construction. The 
smoke-pipe, connected -with [a], the heater, coiled twice around in the air- 
chamber, passes off in the direction of [3, b'] to the chiomer. The short tin 
pipes [c, c] conduct the warm air into the lower rooms ; and the long ones 
le, c] convey it to the rooms in the second story. On each side of the projec- 
tion over the door [d] is a window, lighting the outside entry, and also the 
middle entry by another window over the inside door. The end views of seats 
and desks do not represent the different sizes very accurately, but suniciently 
so to give a correct idea of the general plan. 



The High School-House. 



This building occupies an elevated and beautiful situation, at the head of 
President street, near the central part of the city. It is a specimen of plain, 
but tasteful architecture, on which the eye reposes with pleasure. The lot, 
somewhat irregular in its form, is equivalent to one a hundred feet by a hun- 
dred and fifteen, and lies on a gentle hill-side, rendering it easy to construct a 
basement almost entirely above ground, except on the back side. The exten- 
sive grounds in front, and on either side, all planted with trees, and separated 
from the High School only by the width of the streets, add much to the beamy 
and pleasantness of its situation. The yards around it are inclosed bv a 
handsome baluster fence, resting in front 'on heavy blocks of rough granite. 
The steps are of hewn granite, twelve feet long, making a ver}' convenient 
entrance. 

The High School being designed for both boys and girls, an entirely separate 
entrance is pronded for each department. The front door, at which the girls 
enter, has a very beautiful frontispiece, with double columns (thus providing 
for large side-lights), and a heavj- ornamented cap, all cut from Gluincy granite 
in the best style. 

The door in the circular projection, fronting on another street, has also a 
fine frontispiece, cut from Gluincy granite. 

The size of this building is fifty feet by seventy-six, with a projection of 
seven feet. The walls of the basement are of stone, three feet thick, and faced 
with rough-hewn granite, laid in courses twenty- inches wide. Each stone has 
a " chiseled draft, fine cut," an inch wide around the face, and all the joints 
as close and true as if the whole were fine hammered. The remaining por- 
tions of the walls, diminishing in thickness as they rise, are faced with the 
best quality of Danvers pressed brick, giving the building a beautiful appear- 
ance. The roof is covered with tin, every joint soldered, and the whole sur- 
face kept well painted. 

The rooms in the basement story, which is twelve feet high in the clear, are 
separated from each other by solid brick walls. The pupils in the girls' de- 
partment, entering the house at [A], pass into the large lobby [C], twelve feet 
by twenty-eight, from which they can go to all parts of the building appro- 
priated to their use. 

The fumace-room [H] has a brick floor, and is kept in as good order as the 
other parts of the house. The coal-bins [??, n] and the furnace [F] are so con- 
structed, that, with an ordinary degree of care, the room may be kept as clean 
as any of the school-rooms. ' The arrangements [rn, m] for setting up um- 
brellas have been described. The pump [p], accessible to all in the girls' 
department, connected with a nice sink, lined with lead, affords an abundant 
supply of excellent water. The rooms [E, G, I], each not far from sixteen by 
twenty-four feet, are appropriated as the Superintendent's Office, and for such 
meetings of the School Committee, and of its sub-committees, as may be ap- 
pointed there. 

The large lecture-room, on the opposite side of the lobby, is fumished with 
settees, which will accommodate about two hundred and fifty pupils. On the 



S6 



SCHOOL ARCmTECTDRE. 




Xo. 15.— Pka of the Basonent of High Schot^ 



platfonn [P], raised scTen inches from the floor, a long table or counter [d], 
made conrenient for experimental lectures in GhemistiT, !>ratnral Philosophy, 
&C., haTing pneumatie cisterns for holding gasses. At [F, ice] are snitable 
provisions for the fires used in the preparations of chemical experiments. 
The pmnp [p], with a sink like the other, is used exclnsively by the pupils in 
the boys' departmenL 

In £" l?:~r5? E.z.i other exercises in this room, the girls, entering at [a], 
occurr :_f sfi ? j. :Jie right of [D], the middle aisle. The boys, entering by 
desce:ii:j:r :i.r s^:r; night of stairs [i], are seated on the opposite side of the 
r : : T .5 :^ir seem like descending to useless particulars, but it is done to 
s : : 1: ;.f:e are no grounds for the objections sometimes made against 
h _ : - :. ; : : . f: : "; 5 ?.zd for girls in the same building, \rhere the depart- 
1:1 f 11 5 ^^ ^ : : T : 7 : arate. except in exercises in vocal music and occa- 

s:^i.i. ^eciu^es. J'^i .0. s enter the house at the end door [B], irhich is six 
feec above the basement floor, and, by a short flight of stairs, tiiey reach the 
first s:orT a: [.-]. 

T _r ifr : m- 'C. D, F] are appropriated to the department for girls. 
Thfv v.r ; ;:es5 to the pupils, who, ascending the broad flight of 

5 ^ ?" ::' T ass readily into their respective rooms. 

r -1 -e school occupying three years, the room [D] 
15 1 r : :i lor the first, [E] to those 'of the secondhand 

[Fj :: ;e ijf uie ihird year. In each room there are three sizes of 

seat? and their arrangement in all is tmiform. The largest are on 

:he : ; "f : johl The laigest desks are four feet eighi inches long, 

a : r 5 wide on the top; the middle size is two inches smaller, 

a: • in the same proportions. The largest seats areas 

Li- It seventeen inches, and the remaining sizes are 

rf - :'ae desks. The passages around the sides of the 

r : ^. wide, and those between the rows of desks, 

L; •-:: \ :: rl^es. 

'J I"^ P] are the teachers' tables [d.d.d.di, 

core: imished with four drawers each. The 

regis: : 7 ^ . . . ^_ :"-n the fiimace, and the pipes [/>,^,p] 

condact ic into the re The passage [d] leads into the 

back yard, which is or. ety of shrubbeiy. 



HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



87 




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No, 16— Plan of the First Story of the High School. 



The door leading from the room [F] is used only for teachers and visitors, 
except when the two departments assemble in the hall. 

In the room [C] the boys pursue the studies prescribed for the first year; 
the other rooms in this department are in the next story. 

Pupils ascending from the area [e'], by two circular stairways, land on the 
broad space [«,c], from which, by a short flight of stairs, they reach [A], in 
the following cut, the floor of the upper story, which is sixteen feet in the clear. 




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CZZ] dU nZ3 LZZi I I 
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i 



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No. 17.— Plan of the Second Story of the High School-House. 



88 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




The room [B] is appropriated to the middle class, and [C] to the senior 
class. The arrangement of the seats and desks are 
the same as ia The other rooms, except they are 
movable — being screwed to a frame not fastened to 
the floor, as shown in this cut. 

The cross partition [o] — see cot Zso. 17 — is com- 
posed of four very large doors, about fourteen feet 
square, hung with weights in such a manner that 
they mav be raised into the attic, thus throwing the whole upper story into one 
large hall — an arrangement by which one room can be changed mio'thrce, and 
three into on^, as the occasion may require. On all public occasions, such as 
Gluarterly Examinations, and .Annual Exhibitions, the rooms are thus thrown 
together, and the seats and desks turned so as to face the platform [P], ia 
[E], the principal hall. 

Observation and experiment, relative to the modes of warming the public 
school-rooms, have proved that very large stoves, eighteen inches in diameter, 
render the temperature of the rooms viore 'uniform and pleasayit, and that they 
are also more economical, both in regard to the amoimt of fuel consumed, and 
the amount of repairs required. It is a general principle, that a warming 
apparatus, containing a la.rge quanriiy of fael, imdergoing a slow combustion, 
is better than one containing a small quantity of fuel, in a state of rapid com- 
bustion. The stoves in the small buildings, and the furnaces in the large 
ones, are constructed on this principle. 

In regard to the construction of furnaces for warming public buildings or 
private dwellings, so much depends upon circumstances, that no specific plan 
can be given which would be successful in all cases. One familiar with the 
principles which regulate the motions of currents of air at dinerent tempera- 
Hires, can, with an ordinary degree of good judgment and mechanical skill, 
make a furnace in any place, where one can be made at all, that will accom- 
plish aU which the laws of nature will permit. 

The following cut is intended to illustrate two plans for a furnace. 




>>o. 15. — A Vertical Section of a Furnace 



In the first, the cold air is admitted at [c], through the outside walls of the 
building, and descends in the direction described by the arrows, to [r], and 
thence rises to the top of the furnace, as shown by the arrows. At this place, 
the cold air diffuses itself over the whole upper surface, about eight feet by 
•.en, and passes down between the double walls of the furnace, in the spaces 
[t^ t\ which exrend all around the furnace, and rises from beneath, through a 



HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 89 

large opening [h], into the air-chamber, where it is heated and conducted to 
the rooms by largp pipes, f /, A]. The object of this mode of taking in air is 
two-fold. In the first place, the constant currents of cold air, passing over the 
top of the furnace, keep that surface comparatively cool, and also keep the 
floors above the furnace cool, thus removing all danger of setting fire to the 
wood-work over the furnace. 

In the second place, as the inside walls are constantly becoming heated, 
and the currents of cold air, passing down on all sides of the walls, become 
larified by their radiation, and thus, as it were, take the heat from the outside 
of the inner walls, and bring it round into the air-chamber again, at [b']. This 
is not mere theory, but has been found to work well in practice. On this 
plan, the outside walls are kept so cool, that very little heat is wasted by 
radiation. 

In the second plan, the cold air is admitted as before; but, instead of 
ascending from [r] to the top of the furnace, it passes through a large opening, 
directly from [r], to [p,p,p], representing small piers, supporting the inside 
walls, and thence into the air-chamber at [^], and also up the spaces [t, t], to 
the top [5], from which the air warmed by coming up between the walls is 
taken into the rooms by separate registers, or is let into the sides of the 
pipes [/, h]. 

By this plan, the air passes more rapidly through the air-chamber, and enters 
the rooms in larger quantities, but at a Imver temperature. This is the better 
mode, if the furnace be properly constructed with large inlets and outlets for 
air, so that no parts become highly heated ; otherwise, ihe wood-work over the 
furnace will be in some danger of taking fire. The general defects in the 
construction of furnaces are : — too small openings for the admission of cold 
air — too small pipes for conveying the warm air in all horizontal and inclined 
directions — and defective dampers in the perpendicular pipes. A frequeni 
cause of failure in warming public buildings and private dwellings may be 
found in the ignorance and negligence of attendants. 

A single remark will close this report, which has been extended, perhaps, 
too far by specific details — a want of which is often complained of by me- 
chanics vv'ho are engaged in building school-houses. 

It is believed to be best, and, all things considered, cheapest, in the end, to 
build very good school-houses — to make their external appearance pleasant 
and attractive, and their internal arrangements comfortable and convenient*" 
to keep them in first-rate order, well repaired, and always clean. 

The amount of damage done to school property in this city has uniformly 
been least in those houses in which the teachers have done most to keep every 
thing in very good order. The very appearance of school property well taken 
care of rebukes the spirit of mischief, and thus elevates the taste and char- 
acter of the pupils. 

Respectfully submitted. 

N. BISHOP, 
Superintendent of Public Schools. 

Providence, August, 1846. 



90 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Since the foregoing Report was published, important aherations 
have been made in several of the Grammar and Primary School- 
houses of Providence. In the Grammar School-houses, a projection 
of the same size and in the same relative position as that in Iront of 
the building, is carried up in the rear so as to secure two additional 
rooms for recitation on the second floor, and one for each school- 
room on the first. A second storv' has been added to the Primary 
School-houses, so as to accommodate a large number of pupils, and 
secure a better classification of the same. The Superintendent, than 
whom no one in the country has a better scientific and practical 
knowledge of the subject, has devised a plan of ventilation, at once 
cheap and thorough, which will be carried out as soon as means for 
this purpose are placed at the disposal of the School Committee by 
the City Council. 

The following cut presents a front elevation of one of the new 
Intermediate School-houses in Providence, designed by Air. Teft. 




The only private school edifice in Providence which can be com- 
pared with the Public School-houses, is a beautiful structure erected 
by Mr. John Kingsbury, at his own expense, after plans of Air. Teft, 
for the accommodation of a school of forty girls. This house is 
a perfect gem in school architecture, and no young lady can be edu- 
cated within its walls without receiving not only the benefit of its 
ever}' appliance for health, comfort and neatness, but at the same 
time, some advancement in esthetical culture from the exhibition of 
taste all around her. 

The improvements in education, introduced by !Mr. Kingsbury* in 
his private school from 1S26 to 1838, prepared the way for improve- 
ments in the organization and instruction of the public schools, and 
the improvement of the latter since 1840, have made it necessary for 
Mr. Kingsbuiy to take and maintain still higher ground. Air. 
Kingsbury- has always given his best efforts to improve the public 
schools. 



PUBLIC HIGH SOHOOL-HOUSE. 



91 



Public School-House in Warren, R. I. 



Fig. I. 




Perspective of Ma. John Kingsbuky"s Fe:.:ale Seminary, Providekce, R. I. 



92 



SCHCK)L ARCfflTECmiE. 



The let is i>25(ieep and 100 feet -wide for a depth of 125 feet, and I6l feei-w-ldo 
for the remaining 64 feet. It is divided icto three yards, as exhibited in th • 
ground plan. \Fig. 2,) each substantially inclosed, and planted wi:h trees and 
shmbben*. 

The dimensions of the building are 62 feet by 4A on the ground. It is built of 
brick in the most "workmanlike manner. 

Most of the details of construction, and of the arrangement in the interior, are 
similar to those described on page 214 

Each room is ventilated by opening controlled by registers, both at the floor 
and the ceiling, into four flues carried up in the Trail, and by a large flue con- 
structed of thoroughly seasoned boards, smooth on the inside, in the partition 
Trail, (Fig. 3, x.) 

The whole building is uniformly -warmed by two of Culver's furnaces placed 
in the cellar. 

Every means of cleanliness are provided, such as scrapers, mats, sink with 
pump, wash basin, towels, hooks for outer garments, umbrella stands, &c. 

The tops of the desks are covered with cloth, and the aisles are to be cheaply 
carpeted, so as to diminish, if not entirely prevent, the noise which the moving 
of slates and books, and the passing to and fro, occasion in a school-room. 



m m % 9 



A — Front yard. 

B— Girls^ yard. 

C— Boys' yard. 

P— Privies. 

W— WelL 

F — Culver's Furnace. 




PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE IN WARREN. 
Fig. 3— First Floor. 



93 




imTS(?, 



lloDoDoDoDmDoDo 

.ramDoDmaf 

koDoDoDoDoDm 
DffiDaDaDoDo 



-1////////////////Z^ 



c n 



'^^i^j/mm 



A — Front entrance. 

B— Girls' entrance, with mats, scra- 
pers, hooks for clothes, a sink, pump, 
basin, &c, 

C — Boys' entrance do. 

R — Recitation rooms, connected by 
sliding doors, 

R, P — Platform for recitation, with a 
blackboard in the rear. 

T — Teacher's platform. 

S — Seats and desks ; see page 205. 



CI — Library and apparatus, 

w — Windows, with inside Venetian 

blinds.' 
c — Flues for \%ntilation in the outer 

wall. 
X — Flue for ventilation, lined with 

smooth, well seasoned boards, 
y — Bell-rope, accessible to the teacher 

by an opening in the wall, 
r — Hot air registers. 



Fig. 4.— Second Floor. 




DSoBDoDm 
DoDoDMm 

DoDoDKDm 
DoDffiDBoDoB 
DoDoDoDoD: 






ol ° 



'2ZS2iZ22Z22SSZSZ. 



94 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Primary School ix Westerly, R. L 




Village ScHooL-HorsE ix .Ajllexdale. X Pro\tdence, R.L 




PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE 



95 



Ingraham Primary School-House, Boston. 

The Schoolhouse, to which the following description and plans more par- 
ticularly refer, is situated in Sheafe street, at the north part of the City, and on 
the slope of Copp's Hill, famed in our Revolutionary history. It occupies a 
space of twenty-six by iifty-three feet, exclusive of the play-ground in front, 
between it and the street, which is sixteen by fifty-three feet. This front is 
hardly long enough. Sixty feet would have been much better. The main 
building is twenty-six by forty-four feet ; and there are projections at each 
end, — one on the west, four and a half by sixteen and a half feet, contain- 
ing the privies, and one at the east end, three and a half by twenty-one and 
a half feet, in which is the passage from the lower schoolroom to the play- 
ground. 

The building is three stories irfheight. Each story contains a Schoolroom, 
Recitation-rooms, Closets, Entries, and Privies, and is finished twelve feet high, 
in the clear. Each Schoolroom is lighted by four windows, which are all on 
one side. The first floor is set eighteen inches above the ground at the front 
of the building. The Cellar is finished seven and a half feet high, in the 
clear ; and its floor is on a level with the surface of the ground at the back 
of the building, where is the entrance-door to the first story. 

The Schoolrooms in the first and second stories are thirty feet in length, 
by twenty-two feet and four inches in width, and contain six hundred and 
seventy square feet of floor. That in the third story is thirty-two feet in 
length, by twenty-two feet and nine inches in breadth, and contains seven 
hundred and thirty square feet of floor. Thus allowing from ten to twelve 
or thirteen square feet of floor, and one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air, to 
each scholar. 

The following diagram will show the arrangement of the ground-floor, 
with the Play-ground in front. 




Scale 16 feet to the inch. 



96 SCHOOL ARCHrrECTTJRE. 

The following references will apply to the giound-plan of each of the three 
stories. 

1. Entrance to First Story, by a door under the window W, the back part of the 
building being eight feet lower than the front. 
2; 3, Entrance-doors to the Second and Third Stories. 

A, A, A. Stairs to First Story, from the Entrance-door 1. 

B, Blinds in Boys' Privies. 

F. Fireplace or Furnace-flue, or Stove, when one is used instead of a Furnace. 

G, G, Entrance-gates to Second and Third Stories. The Iron Fence extends the whole 
length of the front on the street, broken only by these two gates. 

R, R, Recitation-rooms, or spaces used for that purpose. In thejirst story, that on the 
right being the entrance-passage to the schoolroom, and that on the left, the passage 
to the Second Story. 

5, S, S, S. Large Slates, measuring four by two and a half feet, affixed to the walls, 
instead of Blackboards. 

T, T, T, Trees in Play-ground. That near the fence, is an old horse-chestnut tree. 
U, Umbrella stands. The place of those of the second story only are shown. In 
the other stories, they are also in the entrance-p^sages. 
W, W, Windows. 
a, Stairs to Second Story. 

6, 6, 6, In second story, Entr\-. and place for Boys' Clothes-hooks, also used as a 
Recitation-room. In third story, place for Clothes-hooks. 

c, In second story, Door into the Recitation-room where are the Sink and Girls' 
Clothes-hooks. In third story, Door into Recitation-room where is the Brush Closet 
and entrance to Girls' Privy. 

d, d, d, In second story, Girls' Clothes-hooks. 

e. Sinks. 

f. Privy for Girls. g; Privy for Boys. h, Trough in ditto. 

t, I, Space between the walls of the Privies and main buUding, for more perfect ven- 
tilation, and cutting off of any unpleasant odor. [This space is here too much con- 
tracted, on account of the want of room. It would be much better, if greatly increased. 1 

k, Entrance-door to Schoolroom, through which, only, scholars are allowed to entet 
In third story, the passage from the stairs to the Entrance-door is through the Recita- 
tion-room. 

I, Teachers' Platforms, six feet wide and twelve feet long, raised seven inches from 
the floors. 

m, Teachers' Tables. 

n. Ventiduct. That for each room is in the centre of that room. These axe better 
shown in the diagram representing the Ventilating arrangement, (p. 183.) 

0, 0, Closets, in the vacant spaces on the sides of the Ventiducts, in the First and 
Second Stories. In Jirst story, they are on each side of the Ventiduct ; in second story 
only on one side. In the third story, there are of course none. See the diagram of the 
Ventilating arrangement, (p. 133.) 

p,p, Ventiducts for other rooms. In plan of second story, p shows the position of the 
Ventiduct for first story. In third story plan, pp show the positions of those for both 
the lower stories. 

q, q, q, Childrens' chairs, arranged in the second story. Their form is represented in 
another diagram, (p. 131.) 

r, s, t, Hot-air Flues from the Furnace, Cold-air Flues if Stoves are used, and Smoke 
Flues. These will be better understood by a reference to the diagram explanatory of 
the Chimney Pier, (p. 132.) 

v., u, Cabinets for Minerals, Shells, and other objects of Natural History or Curiosity. 

V, Door of Recitation-room. In Jirst story, this door leads to the entry in which 
are the Sink, Brush-Closet, entrance to the Privies, and passage to Second Story. In 
second story, it leads to the Recitation-room where is the Teacher's Press-closet : and 
in the third story, to that in which are the Sink, entrance to the Privies, and Stairs to 
the Attic. 

w. Teacher's Press-closet, fitted with shelves and brass clothes-hooks. 

X, Closet for Brooms, Brushes, Coalhods, &c. That for the Jirst story is under the 
Second- Story stairs. 

a, a, a. Stairs to the Third Story. 

b, b, Doors connecting First and Second, and Second and Third Stories. 

f, Place for Fountain, in the centre of the Play-ground. 

g, g. g, Grass-plats, or Flower-beds. 

p, Passage from the First-Story Schoolroom to the Play-ground. 

The Plan of the second story, on the next page, is drawn on a larger scale, 
for greater convenience in showing all the arrangements. The references on 
this diagram are rao'-'? copious and minute than on either of the others. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



97 




98 



SCHOOL ARCmTECTFRE. 



The building fronts nearly N. N. E., and of course all the light comes into 
the Schoolrooms from the Xorth. At the same time, in order to secure the 
benefit of the winds that prevail in Summer, and the admission of " a streak 
of sunshine," which adds so much to the cheerfulness of any room, and 
particularly of a schoolroom, there are windows in the back or southerly 
wall, opening into the recitation-rooms or entries, through which, and the 
entrance-doors, the sunlight finds its way into each schoolroom. The Nea- 
politan proverb, " Where the sun does not come, the physician must," has 
not been lost sight of; though it must be confessed that we have not been able 
to pay so much attention to it as would be desirable. 

The next diagram, which is on the same scale with the first, will show 
the arrangement of the third story, which differs from the first and second in 
having a larger schoolroom, and more space for recitation-rooms ; less space 
being occupied for stairways than in the other stories. The partitions at the 
ends are set one foot each way nearer to the ends of the building, making 
the Schoolroom thirty-two feet in length, while the others are only thirty. 




Scale 16 feel to the inch. 



It will be seen, that the ends of the building are cut off from the school- 
rooms, by entries, stairways, recitation-rooms, &c., and the back and end 
walls are left blank, for convenience in displaying Maps, Charts, Pictures, &c. , 
and for the large Slates, used instead of Blackboards. As ample provision, 
as was practicable, has been made for recitation-rooms, closets, and other 
necessary conveniences. 

It will be seen, from the Plans of the different Stories, that the Entrance- 
door {k) Xo each Schoolroom is in that part of the partition nearest to the 
back walls ; so that, on entering the room, the Teacher's Platform is directly 
before the scholar or %'isiter. This Platform is six feet wide and twelve feet 
long, and is raised seven inches above the floor, that being a sufficient height 
to give the Teacher a full view of the whole school. In the transverse-sec- 
tional elevation, (p. 184,) the raised Platform is shown at P. 

On this Platform, is a Table, (m,) instead of a Desk, that being the more 
convenient article for the Teacher's use. On it, are constantly kept, in full 
view of the scholars. The La.w^s of the School, — the Holy Bible, the Rule 
and Guide of Life, the Moral and Religious Law ; the Dictionary, the Law 
of Language, the Authority for Orthography and Orthoepy ; and the Rules 
and Regulations of the Committee. These should be always on every 
Teacher's table or desk, and should be frequently appealed to. On this 
Table, also, are the Record Book of the School, lak-standish , Table Bell, 
and other necessary articles. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



99 




In front of the Teacher's Platform, and facing it, ar- 
ranged in a semi-circular form, as shown 2X q q q, in the 
Plan of the Second Story, are the Seats for the schol- 
ars. These are comfortable and convenient Arm-chairs, 
of which the annexed diagram shows the form. Each 
has a rack at the side (A) for convenience in holding 
the books or slates of the scholars. These chairs were 
the contrivance of Mr. Ingxaham, and were introduced 
by him into the Primary Schools, in 1842, since which 
lime, the Primary School Board have recommended their 
introduction into all their schools, in preference to any 
other seats, and about one hundred and thirty of the one hundred and sixty 
schools are now supplied with them. They are not fastened to the floor, but 
can be moved whenever necessary ; and this is found to be a great conve- 
nience, and productive of no disadvantage. They have been strongly recom- 
mended by the Committees on School and Philosophical Apparatus, at the 
Exhibitions of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association, in 1844 
and 1847, and premiums were awarded for them in both those years. 

The following diagram is an elevation of the Front wall of the Schoolroom, 
as seen from the Teacher's Platform. It is on the same scale with the pre- 
ceding Plan of the Second Story, — eight feet to the inch. 




Each Schoolroom is lighted by ibur windows ; and in the central pier, be- 
tween the windows, are the Cold-air and Chimney Flues, or the Furnace 
Flues. The Fire-place, or Furnace Flue, is represented at F, as in the pre- 
ceding Plans of the different Stories. The arrangement of the Flues, in this 
pier, will be seen in the next diagram. 

On the mantel-piece, over the Furnace Flue, is, in one room, a Vase of Na- 
tive Grasses, or Flowers, and in the others, ornamental Statues, or Statuettes, 
furnished by the Teachers. Above this, suspended on the pier, is the Clock. 

Between the other windows, are Cabinets, for the reception of Minerals, 
Shells, and other objects of Natural History or Curiosity. Their location is 
seen at u u, in the Plans of the respective Stories. There are two of these 
Cabinets in each Schoolroom, between the windows, above the skirting, and 
as high as the windows, with double sash-doors, of cherry-wood, hung with 
brass hinges, fastened with thumb-slides and locks, and jfitted with rosewood 
knobs. There are twelve shelves in each, six of them being inclined, with 
narrow ledges on each, to prevent the specimens from rolling off. Immedi- 
ately below them are small Closets, with four shelves in each, and double 
doors, hung and fastened in the same manner as the sash doors. 

The Blinds of the Second Story, represented in this diagram, are framed, 
two parts to each window, and are hung with weights and pulleys, in the 
same manner as the window sashes. They run up above the tops of the 
windows, and behind the skirting of the next story above, in close boxes, and 



100 



SCHOOL AKCHITECTrSE. 



Illf 



have rings on the bottom rails, to draw tbem down. In this eleyation. they 
are shown in different positions. The windows in the First Story are fitted 
with Venetian Blinds, and those in the Third Story with Inside Shutter-Blinds. 
All the window-stools are wide, and contain Vases of Native Grasses, or 
Flowers. 

Particular attention has been given to the mode of Heating and Ventilating 
these buildings ; and provision has been made for a copious and constant sup- 
ply of fresh air. from out-of-docrs. which is so introduced, that it is sum- 
ciently warmed before it enters the Schoolrooms. 

The Sheafe-street bmlding is heated, by one of Chilson's largest-sized For- 
uaces , though it was originally constructed with a view to using Dr. Clark's 
excellent Ventilating Stoves, as in the other two buildings.* 

The accompanying diagram shows the ar- 
rangement of the Cold-air and Smoke Flues, 
as arranged for the Stoves. It will be well to 
examine it in connection with the transverse- 
sectional elevation, (p. 1S4,) and the Floor 
Plans of the different Storie£, (pp. 177, 179, 
150.) 

1. 2, 3, Floorings of the First, Second, and Third 
Stories. 4. lloof. 

CA, Cold-air' Floe for First Story, which deHv- 
ers the air from without, under the &ove; as shown 
at C A, in the Iransrerse-section, (p. 1&4;) and at 
F, in the floor-plans. 

r, r, Cold-air Flue for Second Slory, which empties 
into the box under the Stove, at CA, in the Second 
Story of the transverse-sectional elevation. It cor- 
responds to r, in the Floor Plans of the Jirst and 
second stories. 

1. 1. Cold-air Flue for Third Story, which empties 
into the box CA. under the Stove of that Story, 
as seen in the transverse-sectional elevation, and 
at F, in the Floor Plan. It corresponds to t. in the 
Floor Plans. 

These Cold-air Ducts are twelve bv eig^hteen 
inches, inside, and are smoothly plastered, through- 
out. This is hardly large enougn, however. 

s, 8, &noke Flues. That of "First Story corre- 
sponds to s. in the floor plan of Jirst story, and to r. 
in those of the second and third. That of Second 
Story corresponds to s, in second-story Plan, and to 
t, in third-story Plan. That of Third Story cor- 
responds to s, on the Plan of that Story. 

These Smoke Floes are eight inches square, in- 
side, and are smoothly plastered, throughout. That 
of each Story commences in the centre of the pier 
in the room to which it belongs. 

[The pier in which these" Cold-air Duds and 
Smoke Flues are placed, is wider than the piers be- 
tween the other windows, in order to allow sufacient 
width to the Ducts. It must be at least six feet.] 

It will be seen, from the transverse-sectional 
elevation, (p. IS-l.) (the Smoke Flue in which 
is represented as continuous, it not being prac- 
ticable to show the bends.) as well as from 
the Plans of each Story, that the arrangements 
for Ventilation are directly opposite the Chim- 
ney Flues. The Ventiducts are contained in 
tbe projecting pier back of the Teachers' 
Platforms and Tables shown at /, m. in the 
Floor Plans, 
It has already been stated, that panicular attention has been paid to the 
* Descriptions and Plans of this Furnace and Store wiU be found on page 14S. 



\ - '- - 1 

S:^aie 10 feei :o the inch. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



101 



mode of Ventilation ; and it is believed that the system, if not perfect, is 
better adapted to its purpose than any other. The Ventiduct for each room 
is of sufficient size for the room ; and the three are arranged as shown in the 
next diagram. It will be seen, that the Ventiduct for each room is in the 
centre of the pier, thus avoiding any unsymmetrical or one-sided (and of 
course unsightly) appearance. 

1,2,3, 4, Floorings of the First, Second, and Third 
Stories, and Attic. 5, Roof. 

c, c, c. Ventiduct of First Story, commencing in 
the centre of the pier. Between the ceiling of this 
room and the floor of the Second Story, this flue is 
turned to the left, and then continues in a straight 
line to the Attic, where it contracts and empties into 
the Ventilator V, on the Roof. 

d, d, d. Ventiduct of Second Story, also commenc- 
ing in the centre of the pie?, and turning to the 
right, between the ceiling of the Second and floor 
of the Third Story, whence it is continued to the 
Attic, and empties into the Ventilator V. 

e, e. Ventiduct of Third Story, also emptying 
into V. 

These Ventiducts are made of thoroughly sea- 
soned pine boards, smooth on the inside, and put 
together with two-inch screws. Each, as will be 
seen, is placed in the centre of the room to which 
it belongs. They are kept entirely separate from 
each other, through their whole length, from their 
bases to the point where they are discharged into 
the Ventilators on the Roof. Each is sixteen inches 
square inside, through its whole length to the Attic, 
where, as will be seen by the diagram, each is made 
narrower as it approaches its termination, till it is 
only eight inches in width, on the front, the three 
together measuring twenty-five inches, the diame- 
ter of the base of the Ventilator on the roof. As 
they are contracted, however, in this direction, they 
are gradually enlarged from back to front, so that 
each is increased from sixteen to twenty -four inches, 
the three together then forming a square of twenty- 
five inches, and fitting the base of the Ventilator 
into which they are discharged. The increase in 
this direction will be better seen in the Elevation 
on p. 184, where V V represents one Ventiduct, 
continued from the lower noor to the Ventilator. 

V, Ventilator, on the Roof, into which the three 
Ventiducts from the schoolrooms are discharged. 
This is twenty-five inches in diameter.* 

V, v, Registers, to regulate the draught of air 
through the Ventiducts. There are two of theso 
in each Ventiduct, — one at the bottom, to carry off 
the lower and heavier stratum of foul air, which 
always settles near the floor ; and the other near 
the ceiling of the room, for the escape of the lighter 
impure air, which ascends with the heat to the top 
of the room. Each of these Registers has a swivel- 
blind, fitted with a stay-rod, and may be easily 
epened or closed by the Teacher. 

0, 0, Closets. The Ventiduct of each Story being 
in the centre of the projecting pier, aflbrds room 
for Closets, on each side in the First Story, and on 
one side in the Second Story, as shown at o o. There 
are four in the First Story, two above and two be- 
low the wainscot. In the Second Story, there are 
two only, one above and the other below the wain- 
scot ; the other side of the pier being occupied by 
the Ventiduct of the First Story. In the Third 
Story there are of course none. 





Scale 10 feet to the inch. 



102 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTITRE. 




1, 2, 3, 4, Floor- 
ings of the First 
Second,andThird, 
Stories, and the 
Attic. 

C, The Cellar. 

C A, Cold-air 
Boxes, opening 
under the Stoves. 

S, Smoke Flue. 

P, Teacliers' 
Platforms. 

V, Ventiduct, 
emptying into the 
Ventilator on the 
Roof. 

T, V, Ventiduct 
Registers, 

F, Ventilator. 



Scale 10 feet to the inch. 



103 



Tk» pbn of mtmaag Ike Healiiig and Tetihtaig ai i |maiin Ins bee 
idopiBd 1>j the Coinnttee CB TcfltBatioB of the Gnnni Sdb^ 
bai as Iheir pbos aiid AagraoB v«e taken from 9fe. LigiakiB's i 
his Saal amsfe i im ■! was decided foa, tfaey are Met to ( 



xne pieeefii^ dbgnii giwes & 1 

b has aheadj been staled, dnt Ae duldieB are seated vitli 
tbe liglit, and their &3fs tinravfe Ae TeM^o's TaUe and the wan abore and 
OS either aide of it. Oa diis waD, and ako on 1^ two end walk, (as alMnra 
■ the tnnsfeiae-aeclioa,) are iww|CTdwl M^ps, QbdIs, and Fklnres, Bot 

CIS aadK^atife Glasses wnamRBt. the wjadow^^tpcisaad the TcaAeg'TaMes; 

oos poitB of the roans : so Aat whatetcx meds Ae eyes d dbe ^hi^^r^^ is 

ia^ the lore of the beantifid, and eonbining Ae waeftl wfth the rrr: r 
The Cabii]£(s of Miiienk, Shdk, and other objeefs of Natnal £ 
Ciinosxtj, add mneh to die iairaeat and beantf of the ioobb. 

OBthebai^wan,oneiAeradeoftheTeadber'sFlatfenB,atS - ^ - -r 
ibor hoge Slates, in eheny^wood fiames, eaich two and a half b t 
used iB^ead of Bbekboands. These SfaJes are fir prefeaobfe t 

BhddMnids, and coat about the mne as eoBmiaa ones. Th- . i r^ 
gicad^ prefer them to Bfaddboards. Id oan^ them, slate pencfls&rr s-t 

cmp iojtid, instead ofdbalk or c iayti n a , and &ns tihe dnst and^rt •: : : -: 

or dajoBS, — wtich is not only dfiaagieeable to die senses, bm :z.zi:.:.i 
to hea^ by being drawn mio Ae fai^ga,— are aToided. These Sfs ziit 
be frooned in Boattn, of A. Wllbar. 

EaA Sdioal has eonvenieDt BeeitatioB^oams ; Ao^i, in eoc^T : : : r 
the spoee oeenpied by the sfaiis to the Secoid and Tbnd Stones r - t^ 
Stay is not so eownadesdy aecommodaled, in this respect, as e>: : : 
^red. It has, however, two good Entricai, wiaA are nsed lor tins : 
In Ae Second and Third SbaiES, diere are diree of Aese idodls '.: - :Ji 
mneh nae b made. Their location is diown in the Floor Flans. 

ht Ae» srtc-r: : zi5 ? '7' ; : 3 fiir Bkooms, Knafes, and other : - s i -■ 
aitieles of :-i: : also PreaB-dbseis, fiirafeJied i»r 

and brass ?' : t - ^ T^^'^has" pnrate nse. la dMSi i 

Snks, fian: ; T - : boards, paHs, baains and ew e - z rs 

andina^ 1 il:uatE will be led inio f i :i ^ rr 

EariiS;:: :- : so dnt Aey wifl n: - --:- 



entry, fiirh 
itsevexbei: 
stands is iti 
iadieC^ 
to it, widi . 
end, which 



lerel 

tr. 
The C- 

ibe Wti 

IlI5- 



104 



SCHOOL ASCmTECTFRE. 



home. This is considered a very great convenienoej and a matter of the 
highest importance. 




a, a. Surface of 
tne water in. the 
Sesspool. 

6, Outlet to the 
common sewer. 

c, c, Surface of 
the ground ootside 
the building. 

d, d, Floors of 
First Story, of 
stone. 

e, e, Floors of 
Second Storr. 

/. f, Floors of 
Third Story. 

ff,°r, Anic. 

1, 2, 3, Seats and 
Wells of First, 
Secondumd Third, 
Stories. 

V,y,V, Venti- 
duct, tea inches 
square inside, ex- 
tending from with- 
in one foot of the 
surface of the 
water in the Sess- 
pool, to the Ven- 
tilator oa the roof. 
Its sides are repre- 
sented by the dot- 
ted lines 



The precedingr transverse-- 
Privies to the different stone; 



sho\T the peculiar arrangement of the 
uanner in which all unpleasant conse- 



quences or inconveniences are, it is believed, eifectually guarded against. 



PRBIARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 105 

By the Plans of the different Stories, it will be seen, that the Privies are in 
a Projection on the western end of the building, the wall of which is sepa- 
rated from that of the main building, by the space i i, this space being four 
inches between the walls, and extending from the floor of the First Story to 
the Attic. The doors leading from the entries are kept closed, by strong 
springs; and at B, in the southern wall, is a Blind, through which the air 
constantly passes into this space, and up to the Attic, whence it is conveyed 
in a tight box to the Ventilator on the Roof. Except in very cold or stormy 
weather, the window in the northern side is kept open, (the outer blinds be- 
ing closed,) and thus the whole of the Projection is cut off from the main 
building by external air. The space between the Projection and the main 
building is not, however, so great as it would have been made, had there 
been more room. 

It will be seen, that there is a distinct Well to each Privy, separated 
from the others by a brick wall ending below the surface of the water in the 
sesspool. Of course, the only odor that can possibly come into either of the 
apartments, must come from the well of that apartment, there being no com- 
munication with any other, except through the water. And as every time it 
rains, or water is thrown in from the sinks, the water in the sesspool will be 
changed, and washed into the common sewer, it would seem that no danger 
of unpleasant odor need be feared. When the City water is carried to every 
floor of the building, the conveniences for frequently washing out the sesspool 
will be greatly increased. 

There are two apartments on each floor ; one for the girls, at/", and anoth- 
er for the boys, at g. In the latter, is a trough, (A,) with a sesspool, and 
pipe leading into the well, under the seat. There is no window in the boys' 
apartment, but merely the blind, B, which extends from the floor to the ceil- 
ing. The girls' apartment, being in the front part of the Projection, is pro- 
vided with a window similar to the others, and outside blinds. 

Each apartment is fitted with pine risers, seats, and covers. The covers 
are hung with stout duck or India-rubber cloth, instead of metal hinges, 
which would be liable to corrode, and are so arranged that they will fall of 
themselves, when left. The edges of the cloth are covered with narrow 
slats. There is a box for paper in each apartment. The whole finish is 
equal to that of any other part of the building. 

The interior plastering of all the walls of the building is hard-finished, 
suitably for being painted. 

All the Rooms, Entries, Stairways, and Privies, are skirted up as high as 
the window-stools, with narrow matched beaded lining, gauged to a width 
not exceeding seven inches, and set perpendicularly/. 

The interior wood-work of the lower Schoolroom, as well as the interior of 
all the Closets and Cabinets, is painted white. The skirting of the Secono 
Story is of maple, unpainted, but varnished. All the rest of the inside 
wood-work is painted and grained in imitation of maple, and varnished. The 
outside doors are painted bronze. The blinds are painted with four coats of 
Paris green, and varnished. 

In some other schoolrooms in the City, the interior wood-work, — even of 
common white pine, — has been left unpainted, but varnished, with a very good 
effect ; and it is contemplated to have some of the new Schoolhouses soon to be 
erected, finished in the same way. White pine, stained with asphaltum, and 
varnished, presents a beautiful finish, and is cheaper than painting or graining. 

In the angles formed by the meeting of the walls with the ceiling of each 
room, and entirely around the room, are placed rods, fitted with moveable 
rings, for convenience in suspending maps, charts, and pictures, and to avoid 
the necessity of driving nails into the walls. 



•^QQ SCHOOL ARCHITECI'URB. 



Plan and Description of Bowdoin Grammar School-House. 

The new Bowdoin School-house, completed in 1848. is sitaated on Myrtle 
street, and with the yard occupies an area of about 75 feet by 68 feet, bounded 
on each of the four sides by a street. It is built of brick with a basement sioiy 
of hammered granite, and measures 75 feet 9 inches extreme length by 54 feet '6 
inches extreme breadth — having three stories, the first and second being 13 feet, 
and the third, 15 feet high in the clear. The grotmd descends rapidly from 
Myrtle street, thereby securing a basement of 15 feet in the rear. One third of 
wliich is finished into entries, or occupied by three furnaces, coal bins, pumps, 
dec, and the remaining rsro thirds is open to the yard, thereby affording a cov- 
ered play-groimd for the pupils. 

The third story is finished into one hall 12 feet long by 38 feet wide, with seats 
and desks for IK) pupils. On the* south side of this HaU there are two recita- 
tion rooms, each 16 feet by 12 feet, and a room for a library, &;c. There are 
three rooms of the same size on the two floors below. 

The second story is divided into two rooms by a partition wall, each of which 
is 35 feet by ^S, and accommodates 90 pupils, and so connected by sUding doors 
that aU the' pupils of both schools can be brought under the eye and voice of the 
teacher. 

The first story corresponds to the second, except there are eo sliding doors in 
the partition, and no cormeciion between the room except through the front 
entry. The two rooms on this floor have each seats and desks fof 100 pupils. 

Each stoni' is thoroughly ventilated, and warmed by one of Chilson's Fur- 
naces. In each furnace the air chambers, the apertures' for conducting the cold 
air into them, and the flues for constructing the heated air into the rooms in 
each story, being aU large, a great quantity of warm air is constantly rushing 
into the rooms, and the ventilating flues or ventiducts being so constructed and 
arranged that the air of the rooms will be frequently changed, and that a pure 
and healthy atmosphere will at all times be foimd in each of these rooms, pro- 
vided the furnaces are properly and judiciously managed. On the top of the 
building there are two of Emerson's large ventilators, connected with the attic 
and ventilating flues, through which the impure air passes out into the atmos- 
phere above. 

To accommodate pupils who come to school with wet feet or clothes, thert 
is an open fire in a grate in one of the recitation rooms. 

Each room is furnished with Wales' American School Chair, and Ross's Desk, 
and both desk and chair are in material, form and stvle, as described on page 
202 and 205. 

This is a school for girls only, and consists of two departments, one of which 
is called the Grammar department, and the other the Writing department ; the 
master of each department being independent of the other. 

The number of assistant female teachers in each department of this school, 
when full, will be four, the teachers in each department being independent of 
the master and teacher in the other. 

The master of the Grammar department and two of his assistants will occupy 
the large hall in the third story, and his other two assistants will occupy one of 
the rooms in the first story. 

The master of the writing department and two of his assistants will occupy 
the rooms in the second sfory, and his other two assistants wiQ occupy the 
other room in the first story, each master being the superintendence of his own 
department. 

The school, when full, will be divided into five clasc-es, and each class into 
two divisions, nearly equal in nimibers. The first week after the vacation in 
August, the first division of each class will attend in the grammar department 
in the morning, and the second division of each class will attend in the writing 
department ; and in the afternoon, the second division of each class will attend 
in the grammar department, and the first, in the writing department. The next 
week, this order of attendance is to be reversed, and This alteration is to con- 
tinue through the year, the weeks of vacation not being counted. 

This house and'the duincy Grammar School-house are built after designs by 
Mr. Bryant. 



BOWDOIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
Plan of First and Second Floor. 



107 




A, A, Entrance for Pupils. 

B, Ditto lor Teacher. 

C, C, Study halls, each 35 by 38 feet ; 
with seats and desks for 100 pupils. 

D, Sliding door, by which the two 
rooms on the second floor are thrown 
into one. 

E, Study hall, 72 feet by 38. 

F, F, Two recitation rooms on each 
floor, 16 feet by 12. 

G, Room 10 feet by 12, for library, ap- 
paratus, &CC. 



H, Ross' desk, and Wales' chair. 

P, Teacher's platform with desk for 
teacher and assistants. 

S, S, Staircase leading to second and 
third floors. 

a, Case with glass doors for appara- 
tus. 

c, Closet for Teacher. 

g, Grate. 

r. Hot air register. 

V, Flues for ventilation<. 



Plan of Third Floor. 




-^Qg SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plans a>"d Descriptiox of the Public High School-House, 
Hartford, Cosn. 

The Public High School-House of Hartford was built after more 
than ordinary search for the best plan, (a committee having %-i5ited 
Boston, Lowell. Salem. Xewbun-port, Worcester, Providence, and 
Middletown, for this purpose,) under the constant oversight of a 
prudent, practical and intelligent building committee, and with due 
regard to a wise economy. The committee were limited in their 
expenditure for lot, building, and fixtures, to $12,000 ; and when it 
was ascertained that a suitahle building could not be constructed 
for that sum, individuals on the committee immediately contributed 
$2,400 out of their own pockets to complete the house with the 
latest improvements. The committee have now the satisfaction of 
knowing that their contributions and personal oversight have been 
mainly instrumental in erecting and furnishing the most complete 
structure of the kind in New England, when the aggregate cost is 
taken into consideration. 

The High School is designed for both males and females, and the arrange- 
ments of the buildings, and the grounds, are made with reference lo the separa- 
tion of ihe sexes, so far as this is desirable in the same school. 

The lot on which the building stands is at the comer of Asylum and Ann 
streets, and is at once central, and laige enough for the appropriate yards. The 
yards are separated by a close and substantial board fence, and the grounds are 
well laid out and properly inclosed ; they will also soon be planted with trees 
and shrubbery. The building is of brick, three stories high, upon a firm stone 
basement. Its dimensions are 50 by 75 feet. The basement is 13 feet in the 
clear, sLs feet of which are above the level of the yard. This part of the build- 
ing is occupied by furnaces, coal bins, sinks, pumps, entrance rooms, ice. At one 
end, and on two opposite sides of the building, a stair case eleven feet in width 
extends from each of the two entrance rooms, to the upper story, with spacious 
landings on the first and second floors. Two rooms, each 11 by 1-1 feet, are be- 
tween the stair cases, the one on the first floor being used for a front entry to the 
building, and the one on the second floor being appropriated to the Library 
and Apparatus, Two closets, eleven by four feet on the first floor, and imme- 
diately beneath the stair cases, receive the outer garments, umbrellas, &e., of 
the teachers. 

An aisle of four feet four inches in width extends between the desks and 
outer walls of the rooms, and between every two ranges of desks is an aisle of 
two feet four inches in width. An aisle of eight feet in width passes through 
the middle of the rooms, parallel to the narrower passages. A space of five 
feet in width is like\rise reserved between the remote seats in the ranges and 
the partition wall of the rooms. Around the sides of the rooms, tastefully con- 
structed settees are placed for occasional recitations, and for the accommodation 
of visiters, and in the upper room for the use of the pupils of the room below, 
during the opening and closing exercises of the school. 

The pupils, when seated, face the teachers' desks and platforms,which occupy 
the space between the entrance doors of each room. 

A blackboard, or black plaster surface, forty feet long, and five broad, ex- 
tends between the doors leading lo the recitation rooms^ which are also lined 
with a continuous blackboard. There is also a blackboard extending the 
entire length of the teachers' platform in the lower room, and two of smaller di- 
mensions in the room above, a part of the space being occupied by the folding 
doors leading to the library and apparatus room. Twenty chairs,' of small di- 
mensions and sixteen inches in height, are placed around each recitation room, 
thirteen inches apart and seven inches from the walls, and securelv fastened to 
the floor, A clock, with a circular gilt frame and eighieen-inch dial plate, is 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL HARTFORD. 109 

placed over the teachers' platform in each school room, in full view of the pupils. 
A small bell is also placed above the teachers' platform in the lower room, with 
a wire attached, passing to the desk of the Principal, in the room above, by 
which the time of recesses, change of recitation classes, &c.. are signified to 
the members of the lower rooms. 

The school-rooms in the first and second stories are 50 feet square, and 13 feet 
in height — to each of which, two recitation rooms 12 by 23 feet are attached. 
The large rooms are furnished with " Kimball's improved School Chairs and 
Desks," placed in six ranges, extending back from the teachers' platforms, ten 
desks forming a range, and two chairs attached to each desk, furnishing accom- 
modations in each room for 120 pupils — 60 of either sex. Ample room yet 
remains in front of these ranges to increase the number of desks when the 
wants of the school demand them. The desks are four feet in length and one 
foot four inches in breadth, constructed of cherry, oiled and varnished. The 
moderately inclined tops arejlxcd to the end supporters, and the openings for 
books are in front of the pupils. Glass inkstands are inserted in the tops of the 
desks, and the ink protected from dust and the action of the atmosphere by 
mahogany covers turning on pivots. The chairs are constructed with seats 
of basswood, hollowed, and backs of cherry, moulded both to add beauty to 
the form of the chair, and to afford support and comfort to the occupants. All 
are neatly stained and varnished, and they, as well as the desks, rest on iron 
supporters, firmly screwed to the floor. 

The entire upper story is converted into a hall, being twelve feet in height at 
the walls, rising thence in an arch to the height of seventeen feet. This is ap- 
propriated to reading, and declamation, and for the female department of the 
school, to daily recess, and calisthenic exercises. A moderately raised platform 
is located at one end, above which an extended blackboard is placed, and settees 
are ranged around the walls ; these, properly arranged, together with the settees 
from the lower rooms, which are easily transported above, speedily convert the 
open Hall into a commodious Lecture room, — and also adapt it to the purposes 
of public examinations and exhibitions. 

In each of the two entrance rooms are placed the means of cleanliness and 
comfort, — a pump of the most approved construction, an ample sink, two wash 
basins with towels, glass drinking tumblers, and a looking-glass. Ranges of 
hooks for hatsj coats, bonnets, cloaks, &c., extend around the rooms, and are 
numbered to correspond with the number of pupils, of each sex, which the 
capacity of the house will accommodate. In the girls' room, pairs of small 
iron hooks are placed directly beneath the bonnet hooks, and twelve inches from 
the floor, for holding the over-shoes. In the boys' room, boot-jacks are pro- 
vided to facilitate the exchange of boots for slippers when they enter the build- 
ing — an important article, and of which no one in this department of the school 
is destitute. A thin plank, moderately inclined by hollowing the upper side, is 
placed upon the floor, and extends around the walls of the room, to receive the 
boots and convey the melted ice and snow from them, by a pipe, beneath the 
floor. A large umbrella stand is iurnished in each of the two entrance rooms, 
also with pipes for conveying away the water. Stools are secured to the floors 
for convenience in exchanging boots, shoes, &c. Directly under the stairs is an 
OMNIUM GATHERUM — an appropriate vessel, in which are carefully deposited 
shreds of paper, and whatever comes under the denomination of litter^ subject, 
of course, to frequent removal. These rooms, in common with the others, are 
carefully warmed. The wainscoting of the entrance rooms, and the stair case, 
is formed of narrow boards, grooved and tongued, placed perpendicularly, and 
crowned with a simple moulding. The railing of the stair case is of black 
walnut. A paneled wainscoting reaching from the floor to the base of the 
windows, extends around the walls of the remaining rooms. All the wood 
work, including the library and apparatus cases, is neatly painted, oak-grained, 
and varnished. The teachers' tables are made of cherry, eight feet in length, 
and two feet four inches in breadth, with three drawers in each, and are sup- 
ported on eight legs. A movable waiting desk of the same material is placed 
on each. Immediately in front of the teachers' desk in the upper room, a piano 
is to be placed, for use during the opening and closing exercises of the school, 
and for the use of the young ladies during the recesses. Venetian window 
blinds with rolling slats, are placed inside the windows, and being of a slight 
buff color, they modify the light without imparting a sombre hue to the room. 



110 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTTRE. 



The ventilation of the school-rooms, or the rapid discharge of the air \^hich 
has become impure by respiration, is most thoroughly secured in connection 
with a con^^ant influx of pure varm air from the furnaces, by dischaigmg ven- 
tiduct^ or flues situated on each side of the building at the part of the rooms 
mo^t di^iant from the registers of the furnaces. The ventiducts of each room 
are^ei^'hteen inches in diameter, and are carried from the floor entirely separate 
to the^Stationarv Tcp, or Ejector above the roof. The openings mto the ven- 
tiducts, both at 'the top and bottom of the room, are two feet square, and are 
governed by a sliding door or blind. 



Fig. 2— GRorxD Plak. Yard, Basemekt, 




A — Front vard. 

B— Girls' yard. 

C— Bovs' vard. 

D— Door. ' 

E — Boys' entrance rooms. 

G — Girls' entrance rooms. 

F — Furnace. 

S— Stairs. 

W— Windows. 

P — PriWes, with screen, doors, 

X— Gates. 



&c. 



a — Cold air ducts. 

b — "SVann air ducts. 

c— Foul air duels or ventilating flaes. 

d — Smoke pipe. 

e — Pump, sink. 

f— Umbrella stand. 

g — Hollowed plank to receive wet 

boots, ovei^shoes, &c. 
— Bins for hard coal, charcoal, &c, 
j — Close board fence. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL, HARTFORD. 

Figs. 5 and 6. Plans exhibiting Mode of Ventilation. 



Ill 




Fig. 5. Transverse section exhibiting the manner in which the ventiducts or 
hot air flues are carried up on the inside of the walls, under the roof, till they 
discharge into the Stationary Top or Ejector. 

Fig. 6. Lateral section of the ventiducts or foul air flues, showing the man- 
ner in which the flues are packed together and carried up separately from the 
floor of each room until they discharge into the common Ejector. The cut does 
not represent properly the manner in which the flues are carried under and out 
of the roof. 



Fig. 3. 




Fig. 2. 
Each desk is fitted up 
with a glass ink-well 
(Fig. 2,) set firmly into 
the desk, and covered 
with a lid. The ink-well 
may be set into a cast 
ironbox(Fig. 3,) having 
a cover ; the box being 
let in and screwed to 
the desk, and the ink-well being removable for 
convenience in filling, cleaning, and emptying 
in cold weather. 




112 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. HARTFORD. 
Fig. 3— Plax of First Floor. 




o[ioOTao]o]0]?]a 



0. 01 



oDsa»a=Oo[]oDoafflo[ioDsQ 



A — Front entrance. 
B — Girls' entrance. 
C — Boys' entrance. 
I — C en ire aisle, eight feet. 

L — Aisle between each range of seats and desks,, two feet four inches. 
K — Side aisle, four fset four inches. 
2^t— Space fire feet wide. 
T — Teachers' platform and desk. 

R — Recitation rooms, each twenty-three feet by twelve, famished with 
twenrr chairs, seven inches irom the wall and thirteen inches apart, 
S— Library and apparatus, from eleven feet by fourteen feet. 
^ — Kimball's desk and two chairs. 
O— Piano. 

r — Hot air registers. 
c— Ventilating^ due or loiu air duct. 




'fmate; 






o0c]O®DsasmD^50 ® 

o?]o?]c]o]o]a']?]G 

Fig. 4— Plan of Secoxd Floor. 




PUTNAM FREE SCnOOL-HOUSE. 113 

Plans and Description op the Putnam Free School-House, 
NewburyporTj Mass. 

We are indebted to W. H. Wells, Esq., the gentleman who has 
been selected as Principal of the Putnam Free School, and to whom 
the work of organizing this important institution has been committed, 
for the following plans and description. 

The Putnam Free School was founded by Mr. Oliver Putnam, a 
native of Newbury. It has a permanent fund of fifty thousand dol- 
lars, besides the amount invested in the school-house and its appur- 
tenances. 

The number of pupils to be admitted at the opening of the school 
(April, 1848.) is limited by the Trustees to 80. No pupil can be 
received under twelve years of age, nor for less time than one year. 

The object of the Institution is to lead pupils through an extended 
course of English study. It is open to students from any portion of 
the country, who are prepared to meet the requirements for admis- 
sion. No charge is made for tuition. 

This building is situated on High street, directly opposite the Common or 
Mall. It is constructed of brick, with corners, door-sills, underpinning, steps, 
etc., of freestone. It is two stories in height, exclusive of a basement storj"", 
85-^ feet in length, and b2h in breadth. 

The upper story is divided into two principal school-rooms, each 4.91 feet by 
40i. There is also a small room in this story for the use of the Principal. 
The lower story contains a hall for lectures and other general exercises, and 
four recitation rooms. The hall is 44 feet by 48|. Two of the recitation 
rooms are 14 feet by 17, and two are 11 by 20. 

Each of the principal school-rooms is furnished with 64 single seats and 
desks, besides recitation chairs, settees, etc. The desks are made of cherry; 
and both the desks and the chairs are supported by iron castings, screwed 
firmly to the floor. In form and construction, they are similar to Kimball's 
"Improved School Chairs and Desks." 

The central aisles are two feet and eight inches in width ; the side aisles, 
four feet and four inches; and the remaining aisles, two feet. 

The building is warmed by two furnaces. It is ventilated by six flues from 
the hall on the lower floor, six from each of the school-rooms on the second 
floor, and one from each of the recitation rooms. Each of these flues has two 
registers ; one near the floor, and the other near the ceiling. The two princi- 
pal school-rooms are furnished with double windows. 

The institution is provided with ample play-grounds and garden plots, back 
of the building and at the ends. It has also a bell weighing 340 lbs. 

The first appropriation of the Trustees for the purchase of apparatus, is one 
thousand dollars. Other appropriations will probably be made, as the wants 
of the school may require. In addition to the apparatus procured by the Trus- 
tees, the institution is to have the use of an achromatic telescope, which will 
cost between three and four hundred dollars. 

The cost of the building and ground, with the various appurtenances, exclu- 
sive of apparatus, has amounted to twenty-six thousand dollars. 

The accompanying plans give a correct representation of the arrangements 
on the two principal floors. 

The building was erected after designs and specifications by Mr. Bryant, 
Architect, Boston. ^ 



lU 



SCHOOL ARcmTEcrmz. 



PUTNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE— LOWES STORY. 



I 



t 



^ 



1 






^ 



K! 



H — H !1 for lectures and other general exercises, 44 feet by 4S^. A — Raise- 

r desk. D — Front door. (The portico La front does not appear in thr 

B — Recitation rooms, 11 feet by 2i3. R, R — Recitation rooms, 14 feet 

►jv IT. Jt., E, E, E — Entries. C, C — Wash clos-ts, under the stairs, a, a — Doors 

ieadin^^ to the basement story, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d — Doors, y, v, t, t, v. 

V, V, V, V, V. — Ventilating flues. 



PtTNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE, NEVVBURYPORT. 
PUT.MAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE.— UPPER STORV. 



115 




.^ 



cDnnn^DDDDcDcnnriG a 
DnnnnDDDnDnDnnDna a 



A 



DDDnDDDnaDDnnnaDo 

DDDGDnDDnnDnnDDDa 

DnDDnnDnannnanDDa 



a 



a 



□ 



D 



•< 




VI. D— Room for Male Department. F, D— Room for Female Departmenl. 
A A—Raised platforms for teachers' desks. L — Principal's room. C, C— 
Closets, p, p— Raised platforms under the black-boards, s, s, a, s, s, s— Settets. 
d, d, d, d, d, d— Doors, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v— Ventilating flues. 



'^m^ 



-^^'.'-r. - 2 




SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Ill 



Plans and Description of the Academy Building, Rome. N. Y. 

We are indebted to Edward Huntington, Esq.. for the following plans 
and description of the new Academy building recently erected in Rome, 
N. Y., under his supervision. The building is 70 feet by 44 feet on the 
eround. 




Fig. 2. Basement. 




A — Lecture-room and Chapel. B — Laboratory. C, C — Furnaces, 
D, D, D— Janitor's rooms. E— Entry. F— Hall. 



118 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTmE. 



The building was erected in ISAS. on a lot 19S by 170 feet, on th.e comer of 
Court and James streets, ironting the public square, and is of brick. 70 bv 44 
feet on the ground. The basement wall, op to the water table, is of stone, laid 
in hydraalic cement. The roof is covered with tin. laid in white lead. 

The basement 10 feet high in the clear, contains a lecture-room (which 
serv^es also as a chapel.) 26| by 40 feet, with comfortable seats to accommodate 
conveniently 200 pupils. The floor descends 2 feet from the rear of the room 
to the platform, giving 12 feet height immediately iu front of iL A laboratory, 
12 by 15? feet, adjoins the lecture-room, with which it commnnicates by a door 
at the end of a platform. The remainder of the basement floor is occupied by 
the fomaces for warming the building, and by the rooms of the Janitor. 

The First Floor is occupied by the male department, and consists of a 
school-room about 30 by 54 feet, and nearly 15 feet in clear height, with two 
recitation-rooms, entries, &c. There are 62 desks, each four feet long and lc- 
commodating two pupils. 

On the Second Floor are the girls' school-room, about 28 by 40 feet, with 
seats for 76 pupils, 2 recitation-rooms, library, hall, and room occupied by 
Primary department. There is a large skylight in the centre of the girls' 
school-room, and another in the library. The rooms are 15 feet in height 

The building is thoroughly and uniformly warmed by two ftimaces in the 
basement, and a change of air is secured by venrilators at the top of the rooms, 
and also near the floor, opening into flues which are carried up in the chim- 
neys. The warmth imparted by the smoke which passes up in the adjoining 
flues secures a good draft. In the npper story additional means of ventilation 
are furnished by the skylights, which can be partially opened. 

The desks aie of varnished cherrv. similar. in form to Ross's school desk. 




The supports are of wood, however, instead of cast-iron, and the seats are 
easy Windsor chairs. Both seats and desks are firmly secured to the floor by 
small iron knees and screws. 

The school and recitation rooms are all furnished with large slates set in 
the wall, in the room of blackboards. 



The teachers' desks ir- 



the school-rooms are similar to Fig. 6. 
Fig. 6. 




The whole cost of the building, including furnaces, scholars' desks and 
chairs, slates and inkstands, was about 6;000 dollars. 



ACADEMY AT ROME, N. Y. 



119 



Fig. 3. Plan of First Floor. 




o o. o O. .0 o. . 

CZ] [ZD [Z: LZD 

O o o o o o c o 

[ZZ CZ [IZI zz 

o o o o o o o o 

zz zz zz zz 

_o o o o o o o o 

ZZZZ CZ] zz 

c o o o o o o o 

zjzz zz zz 

oo oo oo oo 



A. 

ZZEZn 

^o o _o o 

ZZZZ 

Q O C O 

o o o o 

ZZZZ 

o o o o 

LZJCD 

o o o o 



ZZ CZJ 

o o o o 

zz zz zz 

_o o _o o o o 

zz zz EZ] 

O O Q o o o 

zz zz zz 

o o o o o o 

zz zz zz 

c o o o o o 

zz zz zz 

o o o o o o 

t=^ C=]CZ] 

o o o o o o 




A — Boys' School-room, with 124 seats. 
B, B — Recitation-rooms. 
C — Dressino-room. 



D— Closet for Apparatus. 
E — Entrance for Boys. 
F — Entrance for Girls. 



Fig. 4. Plan of Second Floor. 




A — Girls' School-room, wiili 7G seats. 
B, B — Recitation-rooms. 
C— Dressing-room. 



D — Primary Department. 

E — Library, lighted by skjiight. 

F — Skylight in ceiling. 



public high school. 121 

Public High School. 

In the preceding pages we have presented a variety of plans for 
the construction and internal arrangements of buildings designed and 
erected, for Public High Schools. Whenever and wherever the 
interest of the community can be sufficiently awakened to call for a 
public school of the grade generally understood by the term High 
School, there will be no difficulty in raising the funds necessary to 
erect and furnish a suitable edifice for the accommodation of the 
school. It may not, then, be amiss in this place to present a few 
considerations and facts bearing upon the establishment of a school 
of this grade in every large village and city in our country. 

By a Public or Common High School, is intended a public or 
common school for the older and more advanced scholars of the 
community in which the same is located, in a course of instruction 
adapted to their age, and intellectual and moral wants, and, to some 
extent, to their future pursuits in life. It is common or public in the 
same sense in which the district school, or any lower grade of school 
established and supported under a general law and for the public 
benefit, is common or public. It is open to all the children of the 
community to which the school belongs, under such regulations as 
to age, attainments, &c., as the good of the institution may require, 
or the community may adopt. A Public High School is not neces- 
sarily a free school. It may be supported by a fund, a public tax, 
or an assessment or rate of tuition per scholar, or by a combination 
of all, or any two of these modes. Much less is it a public or com- 
mon school in the sense of being cheap, inferior, ordinary. To be 
truly a public school, a High School must embrace in its course of 
instruction studies which can be more profitably pursued there than 
in public schools of a lower grade, or which gather their pupils from 
a more circumscribed territory, and as profitably as in any private 
school of the same pretensions. It must make a good education 
common in the highest and best sense of the word common — common 
because it is good enough for the best, and cheap enough for the 
poorest family in the community. It would be a mockery of the idea 
of such a school, to call it a Public High School, if the course of 
instruction pursued in it is not higher and better than can be got in 
public schools of a lower grade, or if it does not meet the wants of 
the wealthiest and best educated families, or, if the course of instruc- 
tion is liberal and thorough, and at the same time the worthy and 
talented child of a poor family is shut out from its privileges by a 
high rate of tuition. The school, to be common practically, must be 
both cheap and good. To be cheap, its support must be provided for 
wholly or mainly out of a fund, or by public tax. And to justify the 
imposition of a public tax, the advantages of such a school must 
accrue to the whole community. It must be shown to be a common 
benefit, a common intereiet, which cannot be secured so well, or at 



.122 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

all, except through the medium of taxation. "What, then, are the 
advantages which may reasonably be anticipated from the establish- 
ment of a Public High School, properly organized, instructed, and 
super-^-ised ? 

First. EYer\- thing which is now done in the several district 
schools, and schools of lower grade, can be better done, and in a 
shorter time, because the teachers will be relieved from the neces- 
sity of devoting the time and attention now required by few of the 
older and more advanced pupils, and can bestow all their time and 
attention upon the preparator}' studies and younger children. These 
studies vrill be taught in methods suited to the age and attainments 
of the pupils. A right beginning can thus be made in the lower 
schools, in giving a thorough practical knowledge of elementary 
principles, and in the formation of correct mental and moral habits, 
which are indispensable to all sound education. All this will be 
done under the additional stimulus of being early and thoroughly 
fitted for the High School. 

Second. A High School will give completeness to the system of 
public instruction whicl* may be in operation. It will make suitable 
provision for the older and more advanced pupils of both sexes, and 
will admit of the methods of instruction and discipline which cannot 
be profitably introduced into the schools below. The lower grade 
of schools — those which are established for young children, — require 
a large use of oral and simultaneous methods, and a frequent change 
of place and position on the part of the pupils. The higher branches, 
especially all mathematical subjects, require patient application and 
habits of abstraction on the part of the older pupils, which can with 
difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils amid a multiplicity of 
distracting exercises, movements, and sounds. The recitations of 
this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactory', must be con- 
ducted in a manner which requires time, discussion, and explanation, 
and the undivided attention both of pupils and teacher. The course 
of instruction provided in the High School will be equal in extent 
and value to that which may be given in any private school, academy, 
or female seminary in the place, and which is now virtually denied 
to the great mass of the children by the burdensome charge of 
tuition. 

As has been already implied, the advantages of a High School 
should not be confined to the male sex. The great influence of the 
female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, companions, and 
teachers, in determining the manners, morals, and intelligence of the 
whole community, leaves no room to question the necessity of pro- 
viding for the girls the best means of intellectual and moral culture. 
The course of instruction should embrace the first principles of 
natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive genius and 
practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered ; such studies as 
navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, and kindred 
studies, which are directly connected with success in the varied 
departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign commerce, 
with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic arts ; 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 123 

sucli studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own state 
and nation, the principles of our state and national constitutions, 
political economy, and moral science; in fine, such a course of study 
as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New England, 
and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents may desire 
it, for business, or for college, and give to every young woman a well 
disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gentle and graceful 
manners, practical views of her own duties, and those resources of 
health, thought, conversation, and occupation, which bless alike the 
highest and lowest station in life. When such a course is provided 
and carried out, the true idea of the High School will be realized. 

Third. It will equalize the opportunities of a good education, and 
exert a happy, social influence throughout the whole community from 
which it gathers its scholars. From the want of a public school of 
this character, the children of such families as rely exclusively on 
the district school are isolated, and are condemned to an inferior 
education, both in quality and quantity ; they are cut off from the 
stimulus and sympathy which the mingling of children of the same 
age from different parts of the same community would impart. The 
benefits, direct and indirect, which will result to the country dis- 
tricts, or poor families who live in the outskirts of the city, from the 
establishment of a school of this class, cannot easily be overesti- 
mated. The number of young men and young women who will 
receive a thorough education, qualifying them for business, and to be 
teachers, will increase from year to year ; and the number who will 
press up to the front ranks of scholarship in the school, bearing away 
the palm of excellence by the vigor of sound minds in sound bodies, 
of minds and bodies made vigorous by long walks and muscular labor 
in the open air, will be greater in proportion to their number than 
from the city districts. It will do both classes good, the children of 
the city, and the children of the country districts, to measure them- 
selves intellectually in the same fields of study, and to subject the 
peculiarities of their respective manners, the roughness and awk- 
wardness sometimes characteristic of the one, and the artificiality 
and flippancy of the other, to the harmonizing influence of reciprocal 
action and reaction. The isolation and estrangement which now 
divide and subdivide the community into country and city clans, 
which, if not hostile, are strangers to each other, will give place to 
the frequent intercourse and esteem of individual and family friend- 
ship, commenced in the school-room, and on the play-ground of the 
school. The school wall thus become a bond of union, a channel of 
sympathy, a spring-head of healthy influence, and stimulus to the 
whole community. 

Fourth. The privileges of a good school will be brought within 
the reach of all classes of the community, and will actually be en- 
joyed by children of the same age from families of the most diverse 
circumstances as to wealth, education, and occupation. Side by side 
in the same recitations, heart and hand in the same sports, pressihg 
up together to the same high attainments in knowledge and charac- 
ter, will be found the children of the rich and poor, the more and the 



12-4 SCHOOL ARCHrrECTDRE. 

less favored in outward circumstances, without knowinsf or canii? to 
know how far their families are separated by the arbitrarv (iis:inc- 
tions which divide and distract society. With nearly equal oppor- 
tunities of education in childhood and youth, the prizes of life, its 
best fields of usefulness, and sources of happiness wiU be open to 
all, whatever may have been their accidents of birth and fortune. 
From many obscure and humble homes in the city and in the counrrv, 
will be called forth and trained inventive talent, productive skill, in- 
tellectual taste, and God-like benevolence, which wiU add to the 
general wealth, multiply workshops, increase the value of farms, and 
carry forward every moral and religious enterprise which aims to 
bless, purity, and elevate society. 

Fifth. The influence of the annual or semi-annual examina- 
tion of candidates for admission into the High School, will operate 
as a powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion throughout all the 
lower schools. The privileges of the High School will be held 
forth as the reward of exertion in the lower grade of schools ; and 
promotion to it, based on the result of an impartial examination, will 
form an unobjectional standard by which the relative standing of the 
different schools can be ascertained, and will also indicate the studies 
and departments of education to which the teachers in particular 
schools should devote special attention. This influence upon the 
lower schools, upon scholars and teachers, upon those who reach, 
and those who do not reach the High School, will be worth more 
than all it costs, independent of the advantages received by its pupils. 

Sixth. While the expenses of public or common schools will 
necessarily be increased by the establishment of a school of this class, 
in addition to those already supported, the aggregate expenditures 
for education, including public and private schools, will be diminished. 
Private schools of the same relative standing will be discontinued 
for want of patronage, while those of a higher grade, if really called 
for by the educational wants of the community, will be improved. A 
healthv competition wlU necessarily exist between the public and 
private schools of the highest grade, and the school or schools which 
do not come up to the highest mark, must go down in public estima- 
tion. Other things being equal, viz., school-houses, teachers, clas- 
sification, and the means and appliances of instruction, the public 
school is always better than the private. From the unilbrm experi- 
ence of those places where a High School has been established, it 
may be safely stated, that there will be an annual saving in the 
expenses of education to any community, equal to one half the amount 
paid for tuition in private schools, and, with this saving of expense, 
there will be a better state of education. 

Seventh. The successful establishment of a High School, by im- 
proving the whole system of common schools, and interesting a larger 
number of families in the prosperity of the schools, will create a 
better public sentiment on the subject than has heretofore existed, 
and the schools wiU be regarded as the common property, the com- 
mon glory, the common security of the whole community. The 
wealthy wUl feel that the small additional tax required to establish 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 125 

and sustain tliis school, if not saved to them in the diminished tuition 
for the education of their own children in private schools, at home 
and abroad, is returned to them a hundred fold in the enterprise 
which it will quicken, in the increased value given to property, and 
in the number of families which will resort to the place where it is 
located, as a desirable residence, because of the facilities enjoyed 
for a good education. The poor will feel that, whatever may betide 
them, their children are born to an inheritance more valuable than 
lands or shops, in the free access to institutions where as good an 
education can be had as money can buy at home or abroad. The 
stranger will be invited to visit not only the institutions which public 
or individual benevolence has provided for the poor, the orphan, the 
deaf mute, and the criminal, but schools where the children and 
youth of the community are trained to inventive and creative habits 
of mind, to a practical knowledge of the fundamental principles of 
business, to sound moral habits, refined tastes, and respectful man- 
ners. And in what balance, it has w^ell been asked in reference to 
the cost of good public schools, as compared with these advantages, 
shall we weigh the value of cultivated, intelligent, energetic, polished, 
and virtuous citizens ? How much would a community be justified 
in paying for a physician who should discover or practice some mode 
of treatment through which many lives should be preserved ? How 
much for a judge, who, in the able administration of the laws, should 
secure many fortunes, or rights more precious than fortunes, that 
might else be lost ? How much for a minister of religion who should 
be the instrument of saving hundreds from vice and crime, and per- 
suading them to the exertion of their best powers for the common 
good ? How much for the ingenious inventor, who, proceeding from 
the first principles of science onward, should produce some improve- 
ment that should enlarge all the comforts of society, not to say a 
steam-engine or a magnetic telegraph ? Hov/ much for the patriotic 
statesman, who, in difficult times, becomes the savior of his country ? 
How much for the well-instructed and enterprising merchant who 
should suggest and commence the branches of business that should 
bring in a vast accession of wealth and strength ? One such person 
as any of these might repay what a High School w^ould cost for 
centuries. Whether, in the course of centuries, every High School 
would produce one such person, it would be useless to prophesy. 
But it is certain that it would produce many intelligent citizens, 
intelligent men of business, intelligent servants of the state, intelli- 
gent teachers, intelligent wives and daughters, who, in their several 
spheres, would repay to any community much more than they and 
all their associates had received. The very taxes of a town, in 
twenty years, will be lessened by the existence of a school which 
will continually have sent forth those who were so educated as to 
become not burdens but benefactors. 

These results have been realized wherever a Public High School 
has been opened under circumstances favorable to the success of a 
private school of the same grade, — wherever a good school-house, 
good regulations, (for admission, attendance, studies, and books,) 
good teachers, and good supervision have been provided. 



12Q SCHOOL ARCHITECTDEE. 

The Principal of the Latin High School of Boston, in a letter 
written 1S46, says, — 

" There is no instimtion so truly republican as such a school as this. Wtile -^re, 
the present teachers, were undergraduates of the school, the rich sent their sons 
to the school because it was the best that could be found. They ascertained that 
it was not a source of contamination, but that their boys learned here to compare 
themselves with others, and to feel the necessity of something more that mere 
v?coMh to gain consideration. At that time, poor men sent their sons hither be- 
cause they knew that they here would get that education wldch they could afford 
to give them in no other way. They gained too by intercourse with their weal thiei 
mates a polish of exterior manners, and an intellectual turn of mind which 
their friends could appreciate and perceive, although they could not tell what it 
was that had been acquired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead 
of his more pampered classmate, and take the honors of the school. 

In a class lately belonging to the school were two boys, one the son of a man 
of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than ^5<X),000; and the other 
the son of an Irish laborer employed by the city at a dollar a day to sweep the 
streets. The latter boy was the better scholar."^' 

The Principal of the English High School in a letter writes, — 

" The school tmder my charge Is pricipally composed of what are called the 
middling classes of our city. At present, about one third of my pupils are sons 
of merchants ; the remaining two thirds are sons of professional men, mechan- 
ics and others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lampUghters, 
and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked, the last year of his course, 
as our third scholar, was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights per 
week, during his whole cC'Urse. to save his father the expense of books, &c., 
while at school. This year my second (if not the first,) scholar, is a cooper's 
son. "We have several sons of clergymen of distinction and lawyers of emi- 
nence. Indeed, the school is a perfect example of the poor and the rich, meet- 
ing on common grotmd and on terms quite democratic. 

The Principal of the High School for girls in Newburj'port, writes, 

" The Female High School was established by the town of Xewburyport 
nearly three years since, under great opposition. It was the desire of its princi- 
pal advocates to make it such a school, in respect to the course of instruction, 
and facilities for acquiring knowledge, and laying the foundation for usefuhiess, 
as should so successfully compete with our best private schools, as to supersede 
their necessity.'"' 

"A few days after we were organized, a gentleman came into the school- 
room to make some inquiries respecting the classes of society most foUy rep- 
resented amongst us. I was totally unable to give him the desired information, 
and judging from the appearance of the individuals of my charge, I could form 
no ilea as to who were the children of poor parents, or'of those in better cir- 
cimastances. I mentioned the names of the parents of several, which I had 
just taken, and, amongst others, of two yoimg ladies of seventeen or eighteen 
)'ea]^ of age, who, af that moment, it being recess, were walking down the 
room, with their arms closely enfnined about each other's necks. ' The first 
of the two.' said the gentleman, ' is a daughter of one of our first merchants, 
the other has a father worse than none, who obtains a livelihood from one of the 
lowest and most questionable occupations, and is himself most degraded ' 
These two young ladies v.-ere classmates for more than two years, and very 
nearly equal in scholarship. The friendship they have formed,' I am confident 
no circumstances of station in life can ever impair. 

"We have had in our number many from the best families, in all respects, in 
the place. They sit side by side, they recite, and they associate most freely 
with those of the humblest parentage, whose widowed mothers, perhaps, toil 
day after day, at a wash-tub, without fear of contamination, or, as I honestly 
believe, a thought of the differences which exist. I have, at present, both ex- 
tremes under my charge — the child of affluence and the child of low parentage 
and deep poverty. As my arrangements of pupils in divisions, <fcc. are, most of 
them, alphabetical, it often happens that the two extremes are brought together. 
This never causes a murmur, or look of dislike. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 127 

A member of the School Committee of Worcester, Mass., writes: 

" Our High School is exceedingly popular wiih all classes, and in the school- 
rooms and on the play-grounds, the children of the richest and poorest mingle 
with perfect equality. No assumption, — no jealousy are seen among them. I 
have been charmed with this republican and Christian character of the school. 
I have seen the children of parents whose wealth was estimated by hundreds of 
thousands, in the same school-room with children (and those last among the 
best scholars of their class) whose parents have been assisted year after year 
by individual charity. The manners, habits, and moral sentiments of this 
school are as pure and high as in any academy, or female seminary of the 
same grade in the commonwealth, 

" To the improvements of our public schools, which has been going steadily 
forward since 1825, does this town owe more of its prosperity, its large acces- 
sion of families from abroad, especially of industrious and skillful mechanics, 
than to all other causes combined. As a mere investment of capital, men of 
wealth everywhere cannot do better with a portion of their property than 
to build elegant and attractive school-houses, and open in them free schools 
of the highest order of instruction. They will then see gathering around 
them men, it may be, of small means, but of practical skill, and moral and 
industrious habits; that class of families who feel that one of the great ends 
of life is to educate their children well." 

A correspondent from Brattleboro', Vt., writes: 

" In the same school-room, seated side by side, according to age and attain- 
ments, are eighty children, representing all classes and conditions in society. 
The lad or miss, whose father pays a school tax of thirty-five dollars, by the 
Aide of another whose expense of instruction is five cents per annum. They 
play cordially and happily on the same grounds, and pursue the same studies — 
the former frequently incited by the native superiority and practical good sense 
of the latter. While the contact corrects the factitious gentility and false ideas 
of superiority in the one, it encourages cleanliness and good breeding in the 
other.^ 

The history of the High School in Providence is the history of 
almost every similar institution. 

'* The High School was the only feature of our system which encountered 
much opposition. When first proposed, its bearings on the schools below, and 
in various ways on the cause of education in the city, was not clearly seen. It 
was opposed because it was " aristocratic," " because it was unconstitutional 
to tax property for a city college," "because it would educate children above 
working for their support," " because a poor boy or girl would never be seen in 
it" — and for all such contradictory reasons. Before it became a part of the 
system, the question of its adoption, or rejection, was submitted directly to the 
people, who passed in its favor by a vote of two thirds of all the legal voters of 
the city. Even after this expression of popular vote in its favor, and after the 
building for its accommodation was erected, there was a considerable minority 
who circulated a petition to the City Council against its going into operation. 
But the school was opened, and now it would be as easy to strike out the whole 
or any other feature of the system as this. Its influence in giving stimulus and 
steadiness to the workings of the lower grade of schools, — in giving thorough- 
ness and expansion to the whole course of instruction, — in assisting to train 
teachers for our city and country schools, — and in bringing together the older 
and more advanced pupils, of either sex, from families of every profession, oc- 
cupation and location in the citj', many of whom, but for the opportunities of 
this school, would enter on the business and duties of life with an imperfect 
education — has demonstrated its own usefulness as a part of the system, and 
has converted its opponents into friends." 

Testimony of the same character might be adduced from Phila- 
delphia, Lowell, New Orleans, and every place where a school of 
this grade has been established. 



128 



SCHOOL ARCHTTECTmE. 

School FrEATTxrEiL 



Moch attention has been devoted recently to the improTement of school 
furninire of every kind, with a view of securing convenience, comfort, doia- 
bility and economy. In addition to the varieties already described and illus- 
trated, we present the following to aid committees and builders in this im- 
portant department of school architecture. 

PR n tARY School Bexch. 

A movable bench for more than two pupils is an objectionable article of 
school furniture ; but if introduced at all, • 





the above cnt represents a style of this article which combines economy and 
convenience. The back is inclined slightly from a perpendicular, and the 
seat is hollowed. The scholars are separated by a compartment, or box, A. 
which serves as a rest for the arm, and a place of deposit for books. 

Gallery axd Sasi> Desk por Primary axd Ixpast Schools. 

For very small children a Gallery consist- 
ing of a succession of seats rising above 
each other, varying in height from seven to 
nine inches, and provided with a support for 
the back. This arrangement, in large 
schools, affords great faciSty for instruction 
in music and all simultaneous exercises. 

The Sand Desk having a trench (b) p^i :.:- 
ed black, to contain a thin layer of sand, in 
which to trace letters and rude attempts at 
imitating forms, was originally much resorted to with the 
young classes, in schools educated on the Lancasterian or 
Mutual system. This style of desk is stUl used in the 
primary schools of the ]Sew York Public School Society, 
bnt very much improved by Mott's Cast Iron Scroll 
Stanchions and devolving Pivot Chair. Every scholar 
is furnished with a slate, which is deposited in the opening 
(fl) in the top of the desk. 

The Boston Primary School Chair. 

These chairs were got up by the late Joseph W. Inaraham, for many year; 
chairman, and one of the most indefatigable members, of the Primary School 
Committee of Boston, and are now in very general use in the Primary School: 
of Boston, and of that vicinity. 






SCHOOL FURNITURE. 



129 



The first pattern is a Chair with a Shelf (s) under the seat, for the purpose 
of holding the Books, Slates, &c., of the scholars. 

The second pattern differs from the first, in having, instead of the Shelf, a 
Rack (a) on the back of the chair, for the same use as the shelf in the prece- 
ding pattern. The third pattern is similar to the second, except that the 
Rack (a) is placed at the side instead of the back, of the chair. The latter 
pattern (with the Rack on the side) is that now adopted in the Boston 
Schools. 

Other specimens of Chairs for Primary Schools will be found on pages 
134, 135, and 139. 

Range of Desks and Seats. 

The following cut represents a range of new desks and seats, like that 
represented in school-room on page 53. The lowest seat (d) is nine inches 




iilBlliliiil^iB 



llli!lll!illiillillllli|iliiiiiiliiiiiiilii!ini|:iiiii]iiiiiiliiiii»^^ 




high, and the chair to the leaf-desk, (e,) is 17^ inches from the floor. The 
front edge of the lowest desk, is 19^ inches, and that of the highest desk, is 
28i inches from the floor. Each range of desk is divided by a partition of 
matched boards extending from the floor to three or four inches above the 
surface of the desk. This partition, to which the desks and seats, (if chairs 
are not used,) are attached, gives great firmness to each desk and seat, and 
at the same time effectually separates each scholar, as much as a single seat 
and desk, with greater economy of room. The desks in other respects are 
; ade like those described on page 47. 



Boston Latin High School Desk. 




The above cut represents an end view of a new style of desk used in the 
Latin High School, in Bedford street, Boston, with a section of Wales' 
Patent School Chair. The standards of the desks are made of cast iron, 
and are braced in such a manner, that when properly secured to the floor, 
there is not the least motion. The curves in the standard facilitate the 
use of the broom in svt'eeping. 



130 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTtrRE. 



Mott's School Chair and Desk. 
The following minute description of Mott's Patent Revolving Pivot 
Chair, and cast iron Scroll Stanchions for School Desks, is gathered 
from a circular of the patentee : 

The seat of the chair is of "vrood : all the other parts, of cast iron. The desk 
stanchions are adjusted to the height of the chair— in the folio-Ring scale, viz : 



No. of the 
Chair. 



10 Inches. 
12 " 
14 " 
16 " 



Height of front! 
edgeofDeis. .Width of Desk. 



17 Inches. 
19 '' 
22 " 



12 Inches, 
12 " 

14 « 

15 « 



Leng-Jx of Desk. t»;=».„-. 
room for each ^'^^^"""k 
scholar; (not 1 ,^l.f„7? '^^ 
i<»^ \ * 1 rows of 1 



17 Inches. 20 Inches. 

18 " ,22 " 
20 " ;24 " 
22 « i25 " 



The/r5^ column denotes the nwriber of the chair, as also the number of the 
desk stanchions. 

Second cdumn, the height of the seat from the floor. 

Third cdumn, the height of the fi-ont edge of the desk from the floor. 

Fourth colitrrtn, the width of the top of the desk. The slope of the desk should 
rise li inch to the foot ; the larger desks having 2^ to 3 inches level on top to 
accommodate inkstands. 

Fifth column, the length of desk room required for each scholar. It should 
not be less than here given. 

Sixth column, the distance that should be allo\red between the desks, from 
die back of one to the front edge of the other. This space will allow a passage 
between the chair and the next rear desk. The number of scholars at a desk 
need not be limited. 

The position of each chair, when screwed to the floor, should have two-thirds 
of the allotted desk room to the right of its centre, and be so near that the back 
of the chair, in its revolution, will barely clear the desk. By placing the chair 
as described, the body of the child is brought ia close proximity to the desk, 
causing the back of the person to rest, at all times, and tmder all circumstances, 
a g[ai nst the back of the chair. 

The chief peculiarity in the desk is, that in the place of straight wooden 
legs, there are substituted curbed cast iron stanchions : the obvious^advantages 
of which are, that they occasion no interference with the movements of the 
scholar seated opposite 'or near to them. 

Two stanchions are necessary for a single desk. Two, also, will support a 
desk of sufficient length to accommodate three scholars ; three, to accommo- 
date six scholars ; four, nine scholars ; and so on for a greater number. 

The expense of fitting up a room with this chair and desk, in the city of New 
York, varies from Si 50 to S2 00 a scholar, aside from the putting up of the 
desks. 




IMPROVED SCHOOL FURtilTlJRE. 



131 



Hartford School Desk and Seat. 
The following cut (Fig. 1,) represents a style of school desk, with a seat 
attached, which has been extensively introduced into village and country 
districts in Rhode Island, and the neighborhood of Hartford, and is recom- 
mended wherever a rigid economy must be observed. 

Fig. 1. 




The end piece, or supports, both of the seat and desk, are cast iron, and the 
wood work is attached by screws. They are made for one or two scholars, 
and of eight sizes, giving a seat from ten inches to seventeen, and a desk at the 
edge next to the scholar, from seventeen to twenty-six inches from the floor. 



Fig. 3. 





Each desk is fitted up 
with a glass ink-well 
(Fig. 2,) set firmly into 
the desk, and covered 
with a lid. The ink-well 
may be set into a cast 
iron box (Fig. 3,) having 
a cover ; the box being 
let in and screwed to 

the desk, and the ink-well being removable for 
convenience in filling, cleaning, and emptying 
in cold weather. 



The desk can be used, by de- 
taching the support for the seat, 
with a convenient school-chair, 
made in the style represented in 
cut (Fig. 4,) or in any other style. 



The eost of a desk and seat for two scholars, perfectly fitted up, varies from 
;i 37Uo$l 50 per scholar. 

Manufactured by Messrs. Allen <$• Reed, JVos. 37 and 38 Pearl street, Hartford. 



132 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURXITTRE. 



Wales' Inipro^t:d School Furxiture. 

The followiDg cuts represent a large variety of improved school chairs, 
desks, and other furniture manufactured by Samuel Wales, Jr., at No. 14 
Bromfield Street, Boston, ]\Iass., from patterns of his own getting up, and 
with such facilities of experienced workmen, and ingenious machinery, as 
enables him to supply all orders for first-class work, with economy, precision, 
and promptness. 

Wales* improved school chairs and desks embrace the following variety, 
and each variety is constructed on the following scale of height, so as to 
meet the varying proportions of scholars ranging from four years to twenty 
years of age : ~^ 

No. 



1. 


Chairs 


, 10 inches high: 


Desks, side next the scholar, 20 inches high. 


2. 


'• 


11 " 


'• 


i( 


(( 


(( 


(( 


(i 


21 " 


3. 




12 " 


'' 


(( 


« 


(t 


i( 


(( 


22 " " 


4. 


(( 


13 -^ 


•• 


(( 


(( 


(( 


<( 


it 


23 " 


5. 


:: 


U •' 




(( 


l( 


(( 


(( 


(( 


24 " 


6. 




1.5 '• 


(( 


c 


(C 


c 


(( 


(( 


25J " ** 


/ , 




16 -^ 


« 


(( 


« 


a 


u 


(i 


27 " " 


8. 


•• 


17 '' 


u 


(( 


u 


i( 


K 


(( 


2Si « " 



Wales' American* School Chairs. 
Xo. 1. 




These chairs are plain and substantial. Each chair is based upon a sing'e 
iron pedestal, which is secured to the seat of the chair at the top, and to the 
floor of the school-room at the foot. The center-piece of the chair-back de- 
scends directly into the foot of the iron pedestal intersecting the back of the 
seat as it passes, in such a manner as to form a bacJ; stay, thereby producing 
in the chair, as a whole, the greatest possible degree of firmness and strength. 

Xo. 2. 




No. 2 represents an improved school desk for two scholars. 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 
No. 3. 



133 




No. 3 represents an improved single desk for one scholar, on iron supports, 
with American school chairs to correspond. Each desk is furnished with an 
ink-well, and a metal cover of the best kind. The top is grooved, to ac- 
commodate pens, pencils, and other small articles, with a safe resting-place. 

Wales' New England School Chairs. 
No. 4. 




Each chair is based upon a pedestal of iron, of great beauty and strength, 
which is firmly secured to the seat of the chair at the top, and to the floor of 
the school-room at the foot. An ornamental center-piece passes down into 
the base of the pedestal, forming the center of the chair-back and the back stay- 



No. 5. 




134 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FCRNmiRI 

No. 6. 




Cuts No. 5 and No. 6, represent an improved double school desk, the 
latter for one, and the former for two scholars, with the ^«ew England 
school chair to correspond. 



Wales' Bowdoin School Chairs. 

No. 7. 




These chairs are constructed substantially like those already described, 
with a tasteful scroll top. The following diagrams, Xos. 8 and 9, represent 
the chair in connection with a desk, both for one and two scholars. 



No. 8. 




WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 



135 



No. 9. 




Wales' Washington School Chairs. 

No. 10. 




Nos. 10, 11, and 12, represent the eight sizes of another variety of the 
chair, with the corresponding desk, both single and double 



No. II. 




136 



WALES- IMPROVED SCHOOL FURMTURE. 
Xo. 12. 




Wales' Normal School Desks a.vd Chairs. 

Xo. 13. 




Xo. 14. 







WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 



137 



Wales' Improved Writing Stools. 

No. 15. 




For most educational purposes, chairs are highly preferable, and this seems 
to be the general opinion ; but, in cases where writing is taught in a separate 
department, the writing-stool is preferred, as being less expensive, and occu- 
pying less room. 



Wales' Primary School Chair. 

No. 16. 




The engravings No. 16 and No. 17, represent a series oi three sizes, suita- 
ble for scholars from four years of age and upward, comprehending all the 
sizes needed in primary and intermediate schools, to wit : — 
No. 1, . . 10 inches high. 
" 2, . . 11 " 
" 3, . . 12 " " 
Each chair is based on an iron pedestal, securely fastened to the seat at 
the top, and to the floor of the school-room at the foot ; thus becoming a per- 
manent article of furniture, and completely avoiding the confusion, irregular- 
ity and noise, which are the unavoidable accompaniments of movable chairs 
in a school-room. 



Wales' Basket Primary School Chair. 

No. 17. 




The Basket Chair has a tastefully ornamented book basket of iron, into 
which the children can place their books, slates, and other utensils of study. 
As a whole, in view of their strength, comfort, beauty and adaptation to their 
object, these are regarded as the best Primary School Chairs extant. 



138 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FTRNnTRE- 



\^ ales" Improted Settees. 

Xo. IS. 




The CDgrayiDgs No. 18 and No. 19, represent an Improved Settee, eight 
feet in length, based upon iron supports, designed for that purpose. Such 
settees are well adapted for recitation-rooras, the walls of school-rooms, for 
the accommodation of visitors, or for any position where permanent settees 
are wanted. They are made of any required height, size, or length ; often 
from forty to sixty feet in length, when placed on the walls of school-rooms ; 
and, being without arms or other divisions, the whole length, in fact, forming 
a single settee, have been found to be very convenient, and of good appear- 



ance. 



Wales' Improved Lyceum Sztte- 

No. 191 




EMTT 



L 



The Improved Lyceum Settee is divided into five parts or seats, with fancy 
iron arms, made for that purpose. 



Wales' Teachers" Arm-chairs. 
No. -20. 




The engravings, Nos. 20 and 21, represent two substantial, well-made, and 
comfortable arm-chairs, having no other claim to novelty than may be due to 
the fact that they are constrocted entirely of hard wood, and are finished 
■without paint of any kind ; they will therefore wear well, and retain their 
good appearance without soiling or defacement, for a long period. 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 139 

Wales' Teacher's Arm-chairs, with Cushions. 

No. 21. 




Wales' Teacher's Table, without Drawers 
No. 22. 




Wales' Teacher's Table, one Drawer. 

No. 23. 




Wales' Teacher's Table, two Drawers. 

No. 24. 




140 WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 

Movable Skeleton Desk. Portable Desk. 




Wales' Teacher's Desk. 

No. 27. 




Wales' Teacher's Desk, three Drawers and Table Top. 

No. 28. 




Wales' Teacher's Desk, three Drawers and Top Desk. 

No. 29. 




wales' improved school furniture. 
Wales' Teacher's Desk, two Drawers and Table Top. 

No. 30. 



141 




Wales' Teacher's Desk, two Drawers and Top Desk. 

No. 31. 




Wales' Teacher's Desk, four Draw^ers and Table Top. 

No. 32. 




Wales' Teacher's Desk, four Drawers and Top Dese 

No. 33. 

0' QIIP UMM : 




142 



WALES- LMPROVED SCHOOL FURNTTCRE. 



Vv'ales* Teacher's Desk, six Drawers ajs'd Table Top. 

Xo. 34. 




"Wales' Teacher's Desk, sex Drawers axd Top Desk. 
No. 35. 




Wales Teacher's Desk am) Library, four Drawers, Table Top akd 

Book-case. 
No. 36. 




A. 
A. The side occupied by the Teacher. 



WALES' IMPROVED SCHOOL FURNITURE. 



143 



No. 37. 




B. 

B. The side facing the school, with a large drawer for maps, drawings, &c., 
and two doors which open a book-case, suitable for a school library. 

Wales' Teacher's Desk and Library, six Drawers, Table Top and 
Large Book-case. 

No. 38. 




A. The side occupied by the Teacher. 

No. 39. 




B. 

B. The side facing the school, with a large drawer for maps, drawings, 
Ac., a small drawer for utensils of study, and three doors which open a large 
book-case, suitable for a school library. 



144 



school architecture. 

Apparatus foe. Warming. 



The thorough ventilation, the constant and regular change of the at- 
mosphere of a school-room cannot be secured by simply providing flues or 
openings, however judiciously constructed and placed, for the escape of 
the air which has become impure from the process of breathing or other 
causes. These flues will not work satisfactorily, unless a mode of warm- 
u\g the room is adopted by which a large supply of pure fresh air, properly 
heated, is flowing in to supply the place of that which is escaping by means 
of the flues. Among the various modes of warming school-rooms and public 
halls, which we have seen in full and successful operation, we select a few. 
in addition to those described in other parts of the work, as worthy of the par- 
ticular attention of committees and others, who are looking round for a 
heating apparatus. We shall use the cuts and description by which the 
patentees and venders have chosen to make their several modes of warm- 
ing known to the public, without intending to decide on the relative 
merits of any one mode. 

Double Fip.e-Place for Warmes'g axd Yextilatiox. 

The following plan of warming and ventilating a school-room is re- 
commended by Mr. George B. Emerson in the School and Schoolmaster. 
The position of the proposed fire-place may be seen in the Plans of 
School-rooms by the same eminent teacher, published on page 50 of this 
work. 

Warming. — In a suitable position, 
pointed ouf in the plates, near the door, 
let a common brick fireplace be built. Let 
this be inclosed, on the back and on each 
side, by a casing of brick, leaving, be- 
tween the fireplace and the casing, a space 
of four or five inches, which will be heat- 
ed through the back and jambs. Into this 
space let the air be admitted from beneath 
by a box 2i inches wide and 6 or 8 deep, 
leading from the external atmosphere by 
an opening beneath the front door, or at 
some other convenient place. The brick 
casing should be continued up as high as 
six or eight inches above the top of the 
fireplace, where it may open into the room 
by lateral orifices, to be commanded by 
iron doors, through which the heated air ^,,.._ 
will enter the room. If these are lower, 
part of the warm air will find its way into 
the fireplace. The brick chimney should 




L 






Fireplace. 



A. Horizontal section. B. Perpendicular section, c. Brick walls, 4 inches thick. 
d. Air space between the walls, e. Solid fronts of masonry. /. Air box for supply of fresl; 
air, extending beneath the floor to the front door. ?. Openings on the sides of the fire 
place, for the heated air to pass into the room. h. Front of the fireplace and mantelpiece 
:. Iron smoke flue. 8 inches diameter, j. Space bet^veen the fireplace and wall, k Par- 
tition wall. I. Floor. 



VENTILATING FIRE-PLACE. 



145 



rise at least two or three feet above the hollow back, and may be surmounted 
by a flat iron, soap-stone, or brick top, with an opening for a smoke-pipe, 
which may be thence conducted to any part of the room. The smoke-pipe 
should rise a foot, then pass to one side, and then over a passage, to the oppo- 
site extremity of the room, where it should ascend perpendicularly, and issue 
above the roof. The fireplace should be provided with iron doors, by which 
it may be completely closed. 

The advantages of this double fireplace are, 1. the fire, being made against 
brick, imparts to the air of the apartment none of the deleterious qualities 
which are produced by a common iron stove, but gives the pleasant heat of an 
open fireplace ; 2. none of the heat of the fuel will be lost, as the smoke-pipe 
may be extended far enough to communicate nearly all the heat contained in 
the smoke ; 3. the current of air heated within the hollow back, and constant- 
ly pouring into the room, will diffuse an equable heat throughout every part ; 
4. the pressure of the air of the room will be constantly outward, little cold 
will enter by cracks and windows, and the fireplace will have no tendency to 
smoke ; 5. by means of the iron doors, the fire may be completely controlled, 
increased or diminished at pleasure, with the advantages of an air-tight stove. 
For that purpose, there must be a valve or slide near the bottom of one of the 
doors. 

If, instead of this fireplace, a common stove be adopted, it should be placed 
above the air-passage, which may be commanded by a valve or register in the 
floor, so as to admit or exclude air. 

Ventilation. — A room warmed by such a fireplace as that just described, 
may be easily ventilated. If a current of air is constantly pouring in, a cur- 
rent of the same size will rush out wherever it can find an outlet, and with it 
will carry the impurities wherewith the air of an occupied room is always 
charged. For the first part of the morning, the open fireplace may sufiice. 
But this, though a very effectual, is not an economical ventilator ; and when 
the issue through this is closed, 
some other must be provided. The 
most effective ventilator for throw- 
ing out foul air, is one opening into 
a tube which incloses the smoke- 
flue at the point where it passes 
through the roof Warm air natu- 
rally rises. If a portion of the 
smoke-flue be inclosed by a tin tube, 
it will warm the air within this tube, 
and give it a tendency to rise. If, 
then, a wooden tube, opening near 
the floor, be made to communicate, 
by its upper extremity, with the tin 
tube, an upward current will take 
place in it, which will always act 
whenever the smoke-flue is warm. 

It is better, but not absolutely es- 
sential, that the opening into the 
wooden lube be near the floor. The 
carbonic acid thrown out by the 
lungs rises, with the warm breath, 
and the perspirable matter from the 
skin, with the warm, invisible va- 
por, to the top of the room. There 
both soon cool, 




[Scale 8 feet to an inch.] 
Ventilating Apparatus. 
A. Air box, 1 foot square, or 24 inches by 6, 
covered by the pilaster, and opening at the floor, 
in the base of the pilaster. B. Round iron tube 
15i inches in diameter, being a continuation oi 
the air box, through the center of which passes 
, C- The smoke flue, 8 inches in diameter. D. 
and smk towards Caps to keep out the rain, 
the floor ; and both carbonic air and 

the vapor bearing the perspirable matter are pretty rapidly and equally dif- 
fused through every part of the room. 

10 



146 SCHOOL ARCmTECTUEE. 

Mott's Tentilating School-Stove, for burxing wood or coal. 

Patented and Manufactured by J. L. Mott, 264 Water-street, N. Y. 

By this stove the room is \ranned by condQcting a supply of moderatelr 
kealed pure air from without, as \rell as by direct radiation from the upper pof- 
lion of the stove. 




A. Air Chamber, for coal or 
wood. 

B. A revolving grate with a 
cam process, by which the 
ashes are easily detached 
and made to drop into the 
ash-pir below. 

C. Ash-Pit, by which also the 
draft can "be regulated, and 
the stove made an air-tight 

D. Duct; or flue under the floor. 
by which fresh air from 
without is admitted imder 
and around the stove, and 
circulates in the direction 
indicated by the arrows. 



This, and all stoves designed to promote ventilation by introducing fresh air 
from without, will work satisfactorily only where a flue properly constructed 
is provided to carry ofi" the air which has beccme impure from respiration. 



BOSTON SCHOOL VENTILATING v.rOVE. 



147 



The Boston Ventilating Stove and Portable Ventilating 

Furnace. 

Patented March lOth, 1848, by Henry G. Clark, M. Z?., and manufactured by 

Gardner Ckilson, Boston. 

The Boston Ventilating Stove is composed of two cylinders, the inner (Fig. I,) 
containing a fire chamber, which is lined with soapstone or fire brick, and is 
fitted with additional smoke-pipes to increase the radiating surface, while the 
outer (Fig. 2,) constitutes a chamber for warming the air, which is introduced 
into it beneath the inner cylinder by a flue from out of doors, and flow^s out at 
the top, to which there is a movable cap, or distributor attached, by which the 
opening is enlarged or diminished, and thus the supply and temperature of the 
air admitted can be easily regulated. 



Fig. 1 




The dark arrows show the course of the air in its passage from the opening 
underneath the stove, through the air-chamber, into the apartment. The ligirt 
arrows show the circulation of the s'/rwke through the various radiating pipes. 

This stove is made of three sizes, varying in price from twenty-five to forty 
dollars. It received a silver medal at the Fifth Exhibition of the Massachusetts 
Charitable Mechanic Association, and has been introduced with signal success 
into many school-houses in Boston, Charlestown, and other places. 

This stove can be advantageously used as a hall stove and as a portable fur- 
nace, under circumstances which will not admit of a brick inclosure. 

Millar's Ventilating School Stove. 



In Millar's Ventilating School Stove, manufactured at Worcester, Mass., 
and designed for burning wood, the air is introduced from outside of the build- 
ing beneath the stove, by an air-box, and is warmed by circulating through 
cast-iron tubes around the fire, until it is discharged into the room. Stoves of 
this patent are much used in the country district in Worcester county, and 
other parts of Massachusetts. 



^48 SCHOOL ARCHrrECTTRE 

Chilsox's Air-Warmii«g a.\d Ventilating Fuenacb. 
PatenUd and Manufactured by Gardner Ckilson, Boston. 



The advantages of the Famace are — 

1. The fire-pot is constracted on the most economical and philosophicai 
principles. It is broad and shallow, — at least rvrice as broad and one third as 
deep as the common fire-pot : — ^is one third smaller at the bottom than at the 
top, and is lined with fire-brick or soap-stone. Thos the fire-bed is deep enough 
to keep the coal well ignited with a slow but perfect combnstion, while the en- 
tire heat firom the fuel is given out to act npon the radiating surface alone and 
the fire-pot can never become red-hot, and does not reqtiire renewal. This 
plan for burning coal is original with the inventor, and has met with imiversal 
approbation. 

3. The radiating surface is large, and so placed that it receives the immedi- 
ate and natural acnon of the heat, and at the same time imparts its heat in Xh& 
most direct and uniform manner lo the fiesh air firom without, without suffering 
waste by absorption from the outer walls of the air-chamber. 

3. The air-chamber is large, and the fi^sh air is admitted and discharged 
so readily and uniformly thai no portion of the radiating surface can ever be- 
come overheated ; and a deUghtftil summer temperattire is maintained in the 
rooms. 

4. The joints of the furnace are so constructed, that, even if the iron-work 
was liable. like other furnaces, to crack finm extreme expansion, by being over- 
heated, (which it is not.) the gas from the burning coal caimot escape into the 
air-chamber. 

5. There are no horizontal inner surfaces on which dtisl and soot can gather, 
which do not- at the same time, clean themselves, or admit of being easily 
cleaned. 

6. The grate in the fire-pot is so constructed, that the ashes can be easily de- 
tached, and the combustion facilitated. 

7. It has stood all the test which sharp rivalry and the most severe pkilosopki' 
ad practical science could apply to it. and has thus far accomplished all that 
its inventor promised, and when tried in the same building with other fur- 
nace^, has uniformly received the preference. 

G. Chilson also manufactures an Open Stove for wood, or coal, and a Grate 
for coal, with an air-chamber on the sides and back of the fire, by which f^esh 
air is warmed in its passage into the room,, and the cheerfol aspe'ct of an open 
fire-place secured. 



BUSHNELL'S FURNACE. 



149 



Bushnell's Patent Hot-air Furnace. 

Manufactured by Ezra Clark, Jr., 61 Front street, Hartford, Conn. 




Bushnell's Furnace is the only one constructed on strictly scientific 
principles, and bears any test either of theory or practice. Scientific gentle- 
men have endorsed its excellence, and successful practice approves and con- 
firms their recommendation. 

The radiating part of this furnace, being that portion which diffuses the 
heat, is distinguished from all others from the fact that the cold air is passed 
into the furnace chamber between horizontal cast iron pipes or tubes, inside 
of which the hot gas of the fire is circulating, and communicating its heat, as 
it passes off to the chimney ; so that the cold air is brought in direct contact 
with the heated iron, and is actually heated before it reaches the inner cham- 
ber of the furnace. While the cold air is passing one way to be heated (be- 
tween the heated iron pipes) the hot gas of the fire is passing the oth'er way 
to be cooled, and thus the mean difference of temperature is kept the greatest 
possible at every point. The greatest amount of heat will be communicated 
in this way, by the least amount of iron surface ; and as the radiator has a 
very large surface, it follows that more heat is extracted (from a given amount 
of fuel) than hy any other invention yet offered to the public. 

This furnace is so constructed that it clears iiJ^e// of ashes and soot, never 
requiring to be disturbed, and consequently requires not as much care as an 
ordinary fire. A child can take care of it when in use, and it can stand from 
season to season, untouched, without trouble or expense, and be at any mo- 
ment ready for immediate use. 

Two kinds of pots are offered by the manufacturer, for use with this fur- 
nace ; one similar to the most approved forms now in use, the other entirely 
different, and the invention of Dr. Bushnell. It differs from all others in 
allowing the fire to be stirred above the grate, and through the opening by 
which the coal is entered. This throws up the dead coals and cinders, which 
are then easily removed, and, as the grate need never be dropped, the dirty 
process of riddling is avoided. No ashes escape, and the cloud of dust which 
usually envelopes the tender in all other furnaces, is no where seen in this, 
and no uncleanliness results from renewing the fire. The fire may be stirred 
and cleaned when it is in full action, as well as at any other time ; the coals 
will never rattle down to choke the fire, but will of necessity, by this method 
of stirring, always be thrown up into a light open cinder, giving free passage 
to the draft and facilitating combustion. 

This furnace is offered in the entire confidence that it is the best ever 
manufactured, and this bold assertion is warranted and proved by the favora- 
ble testimony of those who have used it. A trial is all the proof re- 
quired. 

Three sizes of furnaces are made, viz. : No. 1 with 17 inch pot; No. 2 
with 20 inch pot ; No. 3 with 24 inch pot ; which are now for sale in most 
of the larger cities and towns in the northern states. 

Orders for BushnelPs Furnaces will be promptly attended to, on application 
by mail or otherwise, to Ezra Clark, Jr., Hartford, Conn. 



150 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTTRE. 



Culter's Hot- Air Furnace- 

Patbkted and Manttpactitreit by Cttlver & Co., 52 Cliff-street, New York. 

Culvers Hot- Air Furnace, as described in the following diagram and 
explanations, is intended for hard. coal, to be set in double walls of brick 
masoDiy in cellar or basement below the rooms to be warmed. 

Figure 1. 



A. Iron or Brick Ash Pit 

B. Ash Pit door. 

C. Pot, or coal Barcer, 

with or withoat socp^ 
stone lining. 

D. Fire Chamber. 

E. Lower half of Tubular 

drum. 

F. Elliptical tubes. 

G. Upper half of Tubular 

drum. 

H. Top of Tubular drum. 

I. Cap and smoke pipe. 

K. Flat Radiator. 

L. "Water basou or evapo- 
rator. 

M. Smoke pipe to chimney, 

X. Conductors of Hot Air. 

O. Cold air conductor and 
chamber. 

P. Feed door. 

Q.. Ho I- Air chamber. 

R, Damper in globe with 
rod attached. 

S. Pendulum valve for 
cleaning'. 

— p- Shows the direc- 
tion of the currents of 
hot or cold aii. 




Figaie3. 



Figure 3. 




Fig. 2 repre- 
sents a section 
of large size 
Portable Fur- 
nace with dou- 
ble casings of 
sheet iron or 
zinc. The same 
letters for refer- 
ence are used 
as in Fig. 1. 

Fig 3 repre- 
sents a small- 
er size Porta- 
ble Furnace, 
with two metal 
coverings and 
an evaporating 
dish standing 
upon the top of 
the drum. 




J-^-r^ 



APPARATUS. 

In addition to the necessary furniture of a school, such as seats, desks^ 
and other fixtures and articles required for the accommodation of pupils 
and teacher, and the order and cleanliness of the premises, every school- 
room should be furnished with such apparatus as shall enable the teacher 
to employ the hand and eye of every pupil in illustration and experiment 
so far as may be practicable and desirable in the course of instruction 
pursued in the school. It is therefore important, in the internal wrange- 
ment of a school-house, to have regard to the safe-keeping, display, and 
use of such apparatus as the grade of the school, for which the house is 
intended, may require. A few suggestions will therefore be made on 
these points, and in aid of committees and trustees in selecting apparatus. 

1. In a large school, and in schools of the highest grade, there will be 
need of a separate apartment appropriated to the safe-keeping of the 
apparatus, and in some departments of instruction, for the proper use of 
the same. But in small schools, and as far as practicable in all schools, 
maps, diagrams, and other apparatus, should be in view of the school at 
all times. 

This will not only add to the attractions of the school, and make the 
school-room look like a workshop of education, but will awaken a desire 
in the pupils to know the uses of the various articles, and to become ac- 
quainted with the facts and principles which can thus be seen, heard, or 
handled. 

2. Such articles as are liable to be injured by dust, or handling, must 
be provided with an appropriate room, or a case of sufficient size, having 
glazed and sliding doors, and convenient shelves. 

The doors should not be glazed to the floor, on account of liability to 
breakage, and also to admit of drawers for maps and diagrams, and a 
closet for such articles as may be uninteresting or unseemly to the eye, 
although useful in their place. 

The shelves should be movable, so as to admit of additions of larger 
or smaller specimens of apparatus, and also of such arrangement as the 
varying tastes of different teachers may require. 

3. There should be a table, with a level top, and capable of being made 
perfectly firm, unless the teacher's desk can be so, for the teacher to place 
his apparatus on, when in use. 

4. The apparatus of every school-room should be selected with refer- 
ence to the grade of schools to which it is appropriated, and in Primary 
and District schools in particular, should be of simple construction and 
convenient for use. 

5. As far as practicable, the real object in nature and art, and not a 
diagram, or model, should be secured. 



152 SCHOOL AE.CHITECTDRE. 

The following list of articles is necessarily very imperfect but it may 
help to guide committees in their search after apparatus. 

Articles ixdispexsable ix Schools of every Grade. 

A clock. 

The cardinal points of the heavens painted on the ceiling, or on the 
teachers platform, or the floor of the recitation room. 

As much blackboard, or black surface on the walls of the school-room, 
and the recitation rooms, as can be secured. A portion of this black sur- 
face should be in fiill view of the whole school, for passing explanations; 
and another portion out of the way. "v\ithin reach of the smallest pupils. 
One or more movable blackboards, or large slate, with one or more mova- 
ble stands or supporters. 

All the appendages to a blackboard, such as chalk, crayons, and a rub- 
ber of soft cloth, leather, or sheepskin, and a pointer. 

An inkstand, fixed into the de^k. with a Hd. and with a pen-wiper at- 
tached. 

A slate, iron-bound at the corners, and covered with list or India-rub- 
ber cloth, for every desk, with a pencil-holder and sponge attached. A 
few extra slates for the use of the youngest pupils^ under the care and 
at the discretion of the teacher. 

A map of the district town, county, and state. 

A terrestrial globe, properly mounted, or suspended by a wire. 

The measure of an inch, loot, yard, and rod, marked oS on the edge of 
the blackboard, or on the wall. 

Real measures of all kinds, linear, superficial, sohd. and liquid ; as a 
foot-rule, a yard-stick, quarts, bushels, an ounce, pound. &c.. for the ex- 
ercise of the eye and hand. 

Vases for flowers and natural grasses. 

Apparatus for a Primary or District School. 
The apparatus for this class of schools cannot be specified with much 
minuteness, because the ages of the pupils, and the modes of instruction 
vary so much in different locaUties. The following hst embraces the ar- 
ticles purchased for Primary and District schools in Rhode Island : 
Movable Lesson Posts. These are from three and a half to four feel 
high, and are variously made of wood, and of cast-iron. It 
consists, when made of wood, of an upright piece Oi plank 
from two to three inches square at the bottom, ar^d dimin- 
ishing regularly to the top. where it is one inch, inserted 
in a round or cross base broad enough to support the lesson 
board, or card, which is suspended by a ring on a hook at 
or near the top of the post. 

J. L. Mott, 264. Water street New York, manufactures 
for the Primary schools of the Public School Society of 
New York, a very neat cast-iron lesson stand. 

Reading Lessons. Colored Prints, and Diagrams of 
various kinds, such as of animals, costumes, trades, dec, 
pasted on boards of wood or strong pasteboard : some with, 
and others without printed descriptions beneath; to be 

t suspended at appropriate times on the lesson stands, for 
class exercises, and at other times, on the waUs, or deposited 
in their appropriate places. 
In this list should be included the numeration table, ta- 
bles for reading arithmetical marks, easy lessons, geometri- 
cal figures, punctuation marks, outline maps, &c. 



SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



153 



Allen's Education Table vf'iW be found very useful in teaching the Alphabet, 
Spelling, Reading, and Arithmetic, to little children at home, and in Pri- 
mary Schools. 




Allen's Education Tablf. consists of a board or table, along the centre of 
which are horizontal grooves, or raised ledges forming grooves between them, 
that connect with perpendicular grooves or compartments on the sides, in 
which are inserted an assortment of movable blocks, on the face of which are 
cut the letters of the alphabet, both capitals and small, the nine digits and 
cipher, and ail the usual pauses and signs used in composition and arithmetic. 

The letters, figures and signs are large, so as to be readily recognized by all 
the members of a large class, and from even the extremity of a large school- 
room, and are so assorted and arranged as to be easily slid from the perpendic- 
ular grooves or compartments into the horizontal grooves, and there combined 
into syllables, words and sentences, or used in simple arithmetical operations. 
When the lesson in the alphabet, spelling, reading, composition, or arithmetic, 
is finished, the blocks can be returned to their appropriate places. 

The experience of many teachers in schools of different grades, and of many 
mothers at home, (the God-appointed school for little children, next to which 
should be ranked the well organized Primary School, with a bright, gentle, 
affectionate and patient female teacher,) has demonstrated that by accustoming 
the child, either individually, or in a class, to select letter by letter, and move 
them from their appropriate case to the centre of the board, and there combin- 
ing them into syllables and words, a knowledge of the alphabet, and of words. 
is acquired in a much shorter time and in a much more impressive and agree- 
able manner, than by any of even the best methods now pursued. 

All of the advantages derived from the method of dictation, and the use of the 
slate and blackboard, in teaching children the alphabet, spelling, reading, and 
the use of capital letters and pauses, as well as the elementary principles of 
arithmetic, such as numeration, addition, subtraction, &c., can be secured by 
the introduction of this Table into our Primary and District Schools. 

Manufactured by Edwin Allen only, Windham, Conn., who vnll 
promptly attend to all orders for them. 



lU 



SCHOOL ARCHITECrURE. 



A Moveable Black-hoard, or prepared black surface of considerable eitent, is 
ir dispensable. 

The upper portion of the standing blackboard should be inclined back a 
little from the perpendicular, and along the lower edge there should be a pro- 
jection or trough to catch the particles detached from the chalk or crayon 
when in use, and a drawer to receive the sponge, cloth, lamb's-skin, or other 
soft article used in cleaning the surface of the board. 

Blackboards, even when made with great care, and of the best seasoned 
materials, are liable to injury and defacement from warpiDg. opening of seams, 
or sphtting when exposed to the overheated atmosphere of school-rooms, 
unless they are set in a frame like a slate, or the panel of a door. 

By the following ingenious, and cheap contrivance, a few feet of board can 
be converted into a table, a sloping desk, one or two blackboards, and a form 
or seat, and the whole folded up so as not to occupy a space more than nve 
inches wide, and be easily moved from one room to another. It is equaUj 
well adapted to a school-room, class-room, library or nurser}-. 

// Under side of the .^ ^ 

swinging board, sus- | H/-^ 

pended by rule-joint 
hinges, when turned up» 
painted black or dark 
chocolate. 

a d Folding brackets, 
inclined at an angle of 
75 degrees, and swung 
out to support the board 
when a sloping desk is 
required. 

h c Folding brackets 
to support the swinging 
board when a bench or 
flat table is required. 

€ e e e Uprights attached to the wall. 

g g Form to be used when the swinging board is let down, and to be sup- 
ported by folding legs. The under side can be used as a blackboard for smsdl 
children. 

h A wooden button to retain the swinging board when turned up for use as 
a blackboard. 

n Opening to receive _ n 
inkstands, and deposit p- 
for slate, pencil, chalk, 
&c. 

m Surface of swing- 
ing board when let 
down. 

/ Surface of form or 
bench. 

When not in use, or let down, the desk and form should hang flush with 
each other. 

A cheap movable blackboard can be made after the following cat (Fig. 3. 




, 


CJ 






.. C 1 




m 


8Ft. Tin. 








I 










SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



155 




A movable stand to support a blackboard 
may be made like a painter's easel, as repre- 
sented in the accompanying cut. 

«, Pins for board to rest on. c, Hinge or 
joint to the supporting legs, which are braced 
by hook b, and may be folded up, and the stand 
put away in a closet. A stand of this kind is 
convenient to display outline and other maps, 
reading lessons and other diagrams. 



A large movable blackboard 




of the board, with a common 
dry and hard before it is used 
of smooth wood covered with the composition. 
This composition may also be used on the walls. 



may be made as represented in the 
accompanying cut. An upright frame, 
strongly braced by cross-pieces {a) is in- 
serted into the feet (b,) or horizontal sup- 
ports having castors, on which the whole 
may be rolled on the floor. Within 
grooves on the inside of this upright 
frame is a smaller frame (c) hung by a 
cord which passes over a pulley (^,) and 
is so balanced by weights, concealed in 
the upright parts, as to admit of being 
raised or lowered conveniently. Within 
this inner frame is hung the blackboard 
on pivots, by which the surface of the 
board can be inclined from a perpendic- 
ular. 



with a blackboard suspended on a pivct, 
can be made as represented in the 
lower diagram. The feet, if made 
as represented in this cat, will be 
liable to get broken. 

Composition for Blackboards. 

Lampblack and flour of emery 
mixed with spirit-varnish. 

No more lampblack and flour of 
emery should be used than are suf- 
ficient to give the required black 
and abrading surface ; and the var- 
nish should contain only sufficient 
gum to hold the ingredients togeth- 
er, and confine the composition to 
the board. The thinner the mix- 
ture, the better. 

The lampblack should first be 
ground vs'ith a small quantity of al- 
cohol, or spirit-varnish, to free it 
from lumps. 

The composition should be appli- 
ed to the smoothly-planed surface 
painter's brush. Let it become thoroughly 
Rub it down with pumice-stone, or a piece 



256 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Slate Bladchoard. 

In the class-rooms of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and 
all similar institutions, where most of the instruction is given bv writingj and 
drawings on the blackboard, large slates from three feet wide, to four feet 
long are substituted for the blackboard. These slates cost from S2 to $3, 
and are superior to any other form of blackboard, and in a series of years 
prove more economical. 

Plaster Blackboard. 
As a substitute for the painted board, it is common to paint black a portion 
of the plastered wall when covered with hard finish, (i. e. plaster of Paris and 
sand :) or to color it by mixing with the hard finish a sufficient quantity of 
lamp-black, wet with alcohol, at the time of putting it on. The hard finish, 
colored in this way, can be put on to an old, as well as to a new surface. 
Unless the lamp-black is wet with alcohol, or sour beer, it will not mix uni- 
formly with the hard finish, and when dry, the surface, instead of being a 
uniform black, will present a spotted appearance. 

Canvas Blachloard. 

Every teacher can provide himself with a portable blackboard made of 
canvas cloth. 3 feet wide and 6 feet long, covered with three or four coats 
of black paint, like Winchester's Writing Charts. One side mijht, like 
this chart, present the elements of the written characters classified in the 
order of their simplicity, and guide-marks to enable a child to determine with 
ease the height, width, and inclination of every letter. Below, c<n the same 
side, might be ruled the musical scale, leaving sufficient space to receive 
such characters as may be reqirired to illustrate lessons in music- The oppo- 
site side can be used for the ordinary purposes of a blackboard. When rolled 
up, the canvas would occupy a space three feet long, and not more than three 
inches in diameter. 

Directions for making Crayons. 

A school, or the schools of a town, may be supplied with crayons very 
cheaply, made after the following directions given by Professor Turner of 
the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. 

Take 5 pounds of Paris White. 1 pound of Wheat Flour, wet with water, 
and knead it well, make it so stiff that it will not stick to the table, but not so 
stiff as to crumble and fall to pieces when it is rolled under the hand. 

To roll out the crayons to the proper size, two boards are needed, one, to 
roll them on ; the other to roll them icith. The first should be a smooth pine 
board, three feet long, and nine inches wide. The other should also be pine, 
a foot long, and nine inches \vide, having nailed on the under side, near each 
edge, a slip of wood one third of an inch thick, in order to raise it so much 
above the under board, as, that the crayon, when brought to its proper size, 
may lie between them without being flattened. 

The mass is rolled into a ball, and slices are cut from one side of it about 
one third of an inch thick; these slices are again cut into strips about four 
inches long and one third of an inch wide, and rolled separately between 
these boards until smooth and round. 

Near at hand, should be another board 3 feet long and 4 inches wide, acro>s 
which each crayon, as it is made, should be laid so that the ends may pro- 
ject on each side — the crayons should be laid in close contact and straight. 
When the board is filled, the ends should be trinrmied off so as to make t^e 
crayons as long as the width of the board. It is then laid in the sun, if in 
hot weather, or if in winter, near a stove or fire-place, where the crayons 
may dry gradually, which will require twelve hours. When thoroughly dry, 
they are fit for use. 

An experienced hand will make 150 in an hour. 



SCHOOL APPARATUS. I5Y 

The Goni graph is a small instrument composed of a number of flat rods 
connected by pivots, which can be put into all possible geometrical figures 
that consist of straight lines and angles, as triangles, squares, pentagons, 
hexagons, octagons, &c. 




The Arithmeticon, represented in the annexed cut, is a most useful in- 
strument. In an oblong open frame, twelve rows of wooden balls, alter- 
nately black and white, and of the size of a nutmeg or small walnut, and 
twelve in each row, are strung like beads on strong wires. The instru- 
ment, when fixed to a stand, is about four feet high, the frame being one- 
fourth part broader than it is high. It may be made much smaller, as 
in the cut. When it is used to exercise the children in arithmetic, the 
teacher or monitor stands behind, and slides the balls along the wires from 
fiis left to his right, calling out the number he shifts, as, twice two are 
four, thrice two are six, shifting first four balls, and then two more. As 
the children are apt to confuse the balls remaining with those shifted, a 
thin board covers half the surface on the side next the children, as marked 
by a line down the centre, so that they see only the balls shifted to the 
open side. 




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I 



Holhrookh Scientific Apparatus embraces a variety of articles which 
will be found highly useful in the District school, in which both the older 
and younger pupils of the districts are ordinarily gathered at the same 
time, and under one teacher. 

The following articles constitute a set which costs $14.75, mcluding a 
neat box with lock and key : 

Tellurian; Suspension Orrery; Gear or Wheel Orrery with metal 
wheels ; Globe ; Orbit Plain ; Numerical Frame ; Geometrical Forms 



15& 



SCHOOL ARCmTECTDRE. 



and Solids; Twenty -Jive Geological Specimens ^ Geometry; Scale and 
Triangle; Block to illustrate Cube Roots ; Geometrical Chart; Marm- 
script Letters : Text Book. 

Mr. Josiah Holbrook of New Yorkj whose name was originally con- 
nected with this set of apparatus, and with which, as manufactured under 
his direction, we are familiar, disclaims at this time (1S4S) emy responsi- 
bility for the articles manufactured by Holbrook & Co.. of Ohio. 

This gentleman, so long and so favorably known from his connection 
with Lyceums, and elementary instruction, is now residing in New York, 
and hcLs an office in the Hall of the Public School Society. There, in 
connection with Mr. Seton, and two very ingenious workmen, (Messrs. 
Riker,) he is now getting up apparatus ''which shall be simple, easily 
used, readily understood, not liable to get out of order, and durable." 
The following is a list ol' articles already prepared for Primary Schools : 

A Geological Cabinet , Geometricals, embracing plain figures, solids, models 
of crystals, illastrations of insect architecture and himian mechanism, trans- 
posing and re rohing figures, all illustrated with cuts and explanations ; a globe 
with maps of the world and United States ; numeral frame ; a simple lever, 
with weights; a s^-phon and glass pump, showing the weight of the atmosphere 
in raising water ; ^an air bulb, showing the expansive power of heat, simply by 
the hand; a simple permanent magnet; also an electro-magnet, a microscope, 
a simple orrery, and First Drawing Book for children, are among the instru- 
ments fitted to make clear, distinct, correct and lasting first impressions upon 
young minds, before reading-lessons or the letters of the alphabet can be ren- 
dered intelligible to them. 

To teach Geography and History p^operl3^ the following maps are 
desirable : 

Map or plan of the school-room, yard, &.c. 
Map or plan of the District or Village. 
Map or plan of the Town. County, and State. 
Map of the United States. 
Map of !Xorth America. 
Map of Europe. 
Map of the World. 
Map of Palestine. 

Map of the countries mentioned in the Bible and in ancient history. 
Map of Europe during the middle ages. 

Fitch's Chirography. or plates and instruction in map-drawing. 
Series of Outlin^ Maps, pubhshed by J. H. Mather & Co., Hartford, Cl 
A selection from Borgaus & Johnston's Physical Atlas, published in 
Edinburgh in 1847, viz. 
Rivers in America. 
Rivers in Europe and Asia. 
iSIountain chains in North and South America. 
Mountain chains in Europe and Asia. 
Regions of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 
Geological Map of America. 
Geological -Map of Europe. 
Distribution of Food-plants over the world. 
Distribution of xA.nimals. 
Distribution of Man. ' 
Colton's Historical Chart 
Willard's Map of Time. 
Mattison's Astronomical Maps. 
Page's Normal Chart of Elementar)' Sounds. 



SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



159 



Fulton's Chirographic Charts. 
Green's Analysis of Sentences. 
Henry's Family and School Monitor. 
Wickham's Drawing Tablets. 



Apparatus for Grammar Schools. 

The School Committee of Boston, in 1847, adopted the following arti- 
cles as a set of Philosophical Apparatus for the Grammar schools, which 
was selected and classified by Mr. Wightman, whose long experience in 
manufacturing apparatus for schools of every grade, admirably qualified 
him for the work : 



Laws of Matter. 

Apparatus for illustrating Inertia. 

Pair of Lead Hemispheres, for Co- 
hesion. 

Pair of Glass Plates, for Capillary 
Attraction. 

Laws of Motion. 

Ivory Balls on Stand, for Collision, 
Set of eight illustrations for Centre 

of Gravity. 
Sliding Frame, for Composition of 

Forces. 
Apparatus for illustrating Central 

Forces. 



Mechanics. 

Complete set of Mechanicals, con- 
sisting of Pulleys ; Wheel and 
Axle; Capstan; Screw; Inclined 
Plane; Wedge. 

Hydrostatics. 

Bent Glass Tube, for Fluid Level. 
Mounted Spirit Level. 
Hydrometer and Jar, for Specific 

Gravity. 
Scales and Weights, for Specific 

Gravity. 
Plydrostatic Bellows, and Paradox. 

Hydraulics. 

Lifting, or Common Water Pump. 
Forcing Pump ; illustrating the Fire 

Engine. 
Glass Syphon Cup ; for illustrating 

Intermitting Springs. 
Glass and Metal Syphons. 



Pneumatics. 

Patent Lever Air Pump and Clamp. 

Three Glass Bell Receivers, adapt- 
ed to the Apparatus. 

Condensing and Exhausting Syr- 
inge. 

Copper Chamber, for Condensed 
Air Fountain. 

Revolving Jet and Glass Barrel. 

Fountain Glass, Cock, and Jet for 
Vacuum. 

Brass Magdeburg Hemispheres. 

Improved Weight Lifter for upward 
pressure. 

Iron Weight of 56 lbs. and Strap 
Flexible Tube and Connectors 
for Weight Lifter. 

Brass Plate and Sliding Rod. 

Bolt Head and Jar. 

Tall Jar and Balloon. 

Hand and Bladder Glasses. 

Wood Cylinder and Plate. 

India Rubber Bag, for expansion of 
air. 

Guinea and Feather Apparatus. 

Glass Flask and Stop-Cock, for 
weighing air. 

Electricity. 

Plate Electrical Machine. 
Pith Ball Electrometer. 
Electrical Battery of four Jars. 
Electrical Discharger. 
Image Plates and Figure. 
Insulated Stool. 
Chime of Bells. 
Miser's Plate, for shocks. 
Tissue Figure, Ball and Point. 
Electrical Flyer and Tellurian. 
Electrical Sportsman, Jar and Birds: 
Mahogany Thunder House and 
Pistol. 



i50 SCHOOL ARCHITHCTiniE. 

Hydrogen Gas Generator. Astronomy. 

Chains, Balls of Pith, and Amal- in^proved School Orrery. 
0^°^. TeliuriEin, or, Season Machine. 

Optics. Arithmetic, and Geometry. 

Glass Prism ; and pair of Lenses. ^^^ of 13 Geometric^ Figures of 
Dissected Eve Ball, showing its ^ ^^^l\ ^ , ^ , ^ _ 
arrangement ' -^^ ^^ ^ °^^ ^C" Cubes, for Cube 

Root, &c. 

Magnetism. AtunHaries. 

Magnetic Xeedle on Stand- Tin Oiler. 

Pair of Magnetic Swans. Glass Funnel 

Glass Vase for Magnetic Swans, Sulphuric Acid. 
Horseshoe Magnetr Set of Iron Weights for Hydrostatie 

Paradox. 

Apparatus for High Schools. 

The articles of Apparatus for a High School will depend on the extent 
to which such studies as Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, &c.. are carried, 
and to the amount of money which can be expended. We have drawn 
up several such lists, and in doing so have been governed bv the circum- 
stances mentioned. As the best guide to commirrees and teachers, we 
shall publish in another place, under the head of Priced Catalogues. &c.. 
lists of such articles as can be purchased for sums of money varying from 
^50 to 81000. 



LIBEART. 



Every school should be furnished with a Library which should include. 

1. Books on schools and school-systems, for the use of school officers 
and parents ; and on the theory and practice of teaching, for the pro- 
fessional instruciion of teachers. 

2. Books of reference, tor the use principally of teachers. 

3. Books for circulation among the pupils. 

4. Books for circulation among the parents, and inhabitants of the Dis- 
trici, or neighborhood. 

In the arrangement and lumiture of a school-house, provision should 
be made for the Library. 

The following catalogue may assist those who are charged with the 
purchase of books : 



care of school-houses. 151 

Rules for the Care and Preservation of School-Houses. 

The following provisions are included among the Regulations for the 
Government of Teachers and Pupils of Public Schools, adopted by School 
Committees in most of the towns of Rhode Island: 

For Teachers: 
There shall be a recess of at least fifteen minutes in the middle of every 
half day ; but the primary schools may have a recess of ten minutes every hour: 
at the discretion of the teacher. 

It shall be the duty of teachers to see that fires are made, in cold weather, in 
their respective school-rooms, at a seasonable hour to render them warm and 
comfortable by school time ; to take care that their rooms are properly swept 
and dusted; and that a due regard to neatness and order is observed, both in 
and around the school-house. 

As pure air of a proper temperature is indispensable to health and comfort, 
teachers cannot be too careful in giving attention to these things. If the room 
has no Ventilator, the doors and M'indows should be opened before and after 
school, to permit a free and healthful circulation of air; and the temperature 
should be regulated by a thermometer suspended, five or six feet from the floor, 
in such a position as to indicate as near as possible the average temperature, 
and should be kept about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The teachers shall take care that the school-houses, tables, desks, and appa- 
ratus in the same, and all the public property entrusted to their charge, be not 
cut, scratched, marked, or injured and defaced in any manner whatever. And 
it shall be the duty of the teachers to give prompt notice to one or more of the 
trustees, of any repairs that may be needed. 

For Pupils : 
Every pupil who shall, accidentally or otherwise, injure any school property, 
whether fences, gates, trees or shrubs, or any building or any part thereof; or 
break any window glass, or injure or destroy any instrument, apparatus or fur- 
niture belonging to the school, shall be liable to pay all damages. 

Every pupil who shall any where, on or around the school premises, use or 
write any profane or unchaste language, or shall draw any obscene pictures or 
representations, or cut, mark, or otherwise intentionally deface any school fur- 
niture or buildings, or any property whatsoever belonging to the school estate, 
shall be punished in proportion to the nature and extent of the offence, and 
shall be liable to the action of the civil law. 

No scholar of either sex shall be permitted to enter any part of the yard oi 
buildings appropriated to the other, without the teacher's permission. 

Smoking and chewing tobacco in the school-house or upon the school prem- 
ises, are strictly prohibited. 

The scholars shall pass through the streets on their way to and from school 
in an orderly and becoming manner; shall clean the mud and dirt from iheir 
feet on entering the school-room: and take their seats in a quiet and respectful 
manner, as soon as convenient after the first bell rings; and shall take proper 
care that their books, desks, and the floor around them, are kept clean and in 
good order. 

It is expected that all the scholars who enjoy the advantages of public schools, 
will give proper attention to the cleanliness of their persons, and the neatness 
and decency of their clothes — not only for the moral effect of the habit of neat- 
ness and order, but that the pupils may be at all times prepared, both in con- 
duct and external appearance — to receive their friends and visitors in a respect- 
able manner ; and to render the school-room pleasant, comfortable and happy 
for teachers and scholars. 

In the " Regulations of the Public Schools in the city of Promdence^^ 
it is made the duty " of the principal teacher in each school-house, for the 
compensation allowed by the Committee, to employ some suitable person 
to make the fires in the same when necessary, and to see that this import- 
ant work is properly and economically done ;" also " for the compensation 



jg2 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

allowed, to employ some suitable person to sweep the room and its entries 
daily, and dust the blinds, seats, desks, and other furniture in the same, 
and to clean the same once a quarter, and to see that this work is neatly 
and properly done." 

The teachers must also -' take care that the school-houses, the appara- 
tus in the same, and all the public property entrusted to their charge, be 
not defaced, or otherwise injured by the scholars, and to give prompt 
notice to the Superintendant of any repairs and supplies that may be 
needed." 

Practical Suggestions respecting Yextilation, Fires, Sweep- 
ing AND Dusting. 
The following suggestions are taken from the Manual of the System of 
Discipline and Instruction for the Schools of the Public School Society of 
New York: 

VENTILATION. 

Strict attention should be paid to all the means provided for temperature and 
ventilation. During the season of fires, the thermometer should be watched, — 
and the ventilating flues, windows, doors, and stoves, should be constantly at- 
tended to, — and every precaution taken, to give as pure an atmosphere to the 
school-room, as circumstances will allow. This is not only necessary, for a 
proper and free exercise of the physical powers, — but it will be found greatly to 
influence every mental exercise ; for, both will partake of either languor, or 
vigor, according as ventilation is neglected, or duly attended to. In warm 
weather, the upper sashes should be down during school hours, and allowed to 
remain open about four inches during the night, — except, that on occasion of a 
storm, the windows against which it beats, may be closed. In winter, except- 
ing when the weather is exceedingly cold and piercing, it may be of advantage 
to have two or more of the upper sashes down about an inch during the night; 
but these as well as the doors should be closed before kindling the fires. Two 
or more of the upper sashes should be drawn down at the end of the first half 
hour after opening school, — and again, for a short time at each successive half 
hour, — and whenever the thermometer rises to 70 degrees. At all seasons, the 
windows and doors should be thrown wide open for a few minutes during each 
recess, while the scholars are in the yard. The teacher should be careful to 
require all the scholars to go out, except such as may reasonably be excused on 
account of infirmity or sickness ; and even these should be required to change 
their places, and to exercise themselves by walking to and fro in the school-room. 
At all seasons, at the close of school, all the doors and windows should be 
opened for a few minutes, in order that a pure atmosphere may be admitted 
and retained during the noon-time recess, or at night. A therm ometrical diary 
must be kept during the winter season, and the temperature of the room noted 
at the opening, middle, and close, of each daily session. Further directions on 
this point are given in the instructions for making fires. The window-blinds 
and curtains are for the purpose of guarding against the sunshine, or observa- 
tion from without. They should, therefore, be so managed, as only to exclude 
the direct rays of the sun. and kept open or shut accordingly. "When required 
as a screen from observation, they should extend no farther than necessary for 
that purpose. Attention to these rules will give an air of cheerfulness within, 
so congenial to the young. It is important that this fact be impressed on all — 
that air, and light, are grand essentials in a school-room: let the first be freely 
admitted, and the second never causelessly excluded. 

FIRES. 

The ashes should be taken from the stoves in the morning only, leaving a 
layer of one inch in depth : then to proceed to build with the materials after the 
following manner: Place one large stick on each side; in the space between 
them, place the kindling wood; and above it, the small wood, somewhat cross- 
wise ; then, set fire to the kindling, and close the stove door. See that the 



CARE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES JQ3 

draught is cleared of ashes, or other obstructions; and that the dampers are 
properly adjusted; (these are generally so arranged as to open the draught 
when the handle is parallel with the pipe). If the materials have been laid ac- 
cording tc the foregoing directions, the combustion will be free. Should the 
temperature of the room be as low as 40°, jfill the stove with wood. Under or- 
dinary circumstances, in thirty-five minutes the temperature will be raised to 
GO degrees, — at which point it should certainly be, at the time of opening school ; 
when the stove may be supplied with one or two large sticks. At all times, be- 
fore supplying wood, draw forward the brands and coals with the fire-hook. If 
there should be too much fire, open the stove door, and if necessary, turn the 
damper, — or, what may be better for economy, eflfectually close the draft at the 
stove door with ashes. By attention to all these directions,* the temperatuje 
may be maintained, the wood entirely consumed, and the thermometer stand at 
60 degrees, at the close of the school ; which is desirable in cold weather, so as 
not to subject the pupils to too sudden a change of temperature on going into 
the open air. The evaporating pan should be kept clean, and filled with water 
when in use. In damp rooms it is not needed, — nor in damp weather : — but it 
should be emptied, and wiped dry, before it is set aside. 

DUSTING AND SWEEPING. 

For a large room, or one department of a Public School building, six brooms 
will be found sufiicient to be in use. When half worn, they will serve for 
sweeping the yard; and when well worn down in that service, will still be use- 
ful for scrubbing, with water or sand; and, if properly used by the sweepers, 
will be evenly worn to the last. Before sweeping, pull down the upper sashes, 
and raise the under ones. Lei the sweepers be arranged, one to each passage 
between the desks, — and, beginning at the windward side, sweep the dirt before 
them, till it is carried forward to the opposite side of the room. The broom 
should rest square on the floor, and, with the motion used in raking hay, should 
be drawn towards the sweeper, without flirting it outwards, or upwards, which 
raises unnecessary dust, and wears the broom irregularly. The dirt, when 
taken up, should be carried into the middle of the street. The dusting is to be 
done in the same regular manner, allowing a suitable interval after sweeping. 
If at noon, dusting should be done shortly before school time ; if at night, dust 
the next morning. In out-door sweeping, the same rule is to be followed — the 
sweepers going in ranks, and sweeping from the windward. Let the scrubbing 
be done by a similar method. When once acquainted with these methodical 
plans, the cleaners will do the work, not only more eflfectually, but with more 
satisfaction and ease to themselves — and being a part of domestic economy, it 
will be, so far, an advantage to understand how to do it well. 



154 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Regulations of CnArxcT-HALL School, Boston. 

The following Regulations of one of the best conducted Private Schools 
for Boys in New England, will furnish useful hints to teachers in framing 
regulations for their own schools, especially in reference to the good be- 
havior of the pupils, and to the care of the school-room, furniture; &c. 

REQUISITION. 

Boys are required to be punctual at school. 

To scrape their feet on the scraper, and to wipe them on eTerymat they pass 
ofer on their way to the hall. 

To hang their hats, caps, coats, &:c., on the hooks appropriated to them re- 
spectively, by loops prepared for the purpose. 

To bow gracefully and respectfully on entering and leaving the hall, and any 
recitation room when a teacner is present. 

To take their places on entering the hall. 

To make no unnecessary noise within the walls of the building, at any time 
of night or day. 

To keep their persons, clothes, and shoes clean. 

To carry and bring their books for study, in a satchel. 

To quit^he neighborhood of the school in a quiet and orderly manner, im- 
mediately after dismissal. 

To bring notes for absence, dated, and signed by persons authorized to do so, 
and stating the duration of the absence ; also, notes for tardiness, and for occa- 
sions when pupils are wanted at home before the regular hour of dismissal. 

To study lessons at home, except when inconvenient to the family — ^in such 
cases to bring a certincare of the fact in writing. 

To present a pen by the feather end; a knife, by its handle; a book, the right 
side upward to be read by the person receiving it. 

To bow on presenting or receiving any thing. 

To stand while speaking to a teacher. 

To keep all books clean, and the contents of desks neatly arranged. 

To deposite in desks all books (except writing books,) slates, pencils, rulers, 
Sec, before dismissal. 

To give notice through the school Post Office, of aU books, slates, &c., 
missing. 

To pick up hats, caps, coats, pens, slips, books, ice, foimd on the floor, and 
put them in their appropriate places. 

To replace lost keys, books, Ace, belonging to the school, and make good all 
damage done by them. 

To vrrite all requests on their slates, and wait until called. 

To close desks and fasten them before quitting school for the session. 

To raise the hand as a request to speak across the hall or any recitation 
Toom, 

To show two fingers when a pen is wanted. 

To put all refuse^paper, stumps of pens, Ace. in the dust box. 

To be accountable for the condition of the floor nearest their own seats. 

To fill all vacant time with ciphering, as a general occupation ; and to give 
notice to the teacher, before dismissal, in case of omitting the exercise wholly 
on any day. 

To be particularly vigilant, when no teacher is in the hall. 

To promote as far as possible, the happiness, comfort, and improvement of 
others. 

To /(?Z7<>2C every class-mate while reading, and correct all errors discoverer 
in proinmciation," emphasis, or inflection. 

To point the fore finger of the left hand, at each letter or figure of the sHp of 
copy, while writing, and the feather of the pen towards the right shoulder. 

To keep the wrfting book square in front. 

To rest the body on the left arm, while spelling, and keep the eye directed 
towards their own slates. 

To sit erectly against the back of the chairs, during the singing lessons, and 
to direct their attention to the instructor. 



REGULATIONS OF CHA.UNCY-HALL SCHOOL. 165 

Transferrers to show reports finished as early in the week as 3 o'clock on 
Tuesday, P. M. 

PROHIBITIONS. 

Boys are forbidden to buy or sell, borrow or lend, give, take, or exchange, 
any thing, except fruit or other eatables, without the teacher's permission. 

To read any book in school except such as contain the reading lesson of his 
class. 

To have in his possession at school any book without the teacher's knowledge. 

To throw pens, paper, or any thing whatever on the floor, or out at a window 
or door. 

To go out to play with his class when he has had a deviation. 

To spit on the floor. 

To climb on any fence, railing, ladder, &c., about the school-house. 

To scrawl on, blot, or mark slips. 

To mark, cut, scratch, chalk, or otherwise disfigure, injure, or defile, any por- 
tion of the building or any thing connected with it. 

To take out an inkstand, meddle with the contents of another's desk, or un- 
necessarily open or shut his own. 

To write without using a card and wiper. 

To quit school without having finished his copy. 

To use a knife, except on the conditions prescribed. 

To remove class lists from their depositories. 

To meddle with ink unnecessarily. 

To study home lessons in school hours. 

To leave the hall at any time without leave. 

To pass noisily, or upon the run, from one room to another, or through the 
entries. 

To visit the office, furnace room, or any closet or teacher's room, except in 
class, without a written permit. 

To play Sit paw paw any where, or any game within the building. 

To play in the play-ground before school. 

To leave whitilings or other rubbish in the play-ground, on the side- walk, or 
around the building. 

To go out of the play-ground in school hours. 

To carr}'' out his pen on his ear. 

To use any profane or indelicate language. 

To nick-name any person. 

To press his knees, in sitting, against a form. 

To leave his seat for any purpose, but to receive class instruction. 

To go home, when deficient, without having answered to his name. 

To indulge in eating or drinking in school. 

To go out in class, after having been out singly ; or going out singly, to linger 
below to play. 

To waste school hours by unnecessary talking, laughing, playing, idling, 
standing up, turning round, teazing, or otherwise calling off the attention of 
another boy. 

To throw stones, snow-balls, or other missiles about the neighborhood of the 
school. 

To bring bats, hockey sticks, bows and arrows, or other dangerous play-things 
to school. 

To visit a privy in company with any one. 

To strike, kick, push, or otherwise annoy his associates or others. 

In fine, to do any thing that the law of love forbids — that law which requires 
us To do to others as we would think it right that they should do to us. 

These regulations are not stated according to their relative importance, but 
as they have been adopted or called to mind. They are intended to meet gen- 
eral circumstances, but may be waived in cases of necessity, by special permis- 
sion, obtained in the prescribed mode. 



165 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Dedicatory Exercises. 

The opening of a new school-house is an occasion which well deserves 
a public and joyful commemoration. Out of it are to be the issues of life 
to the community in the midst of which it stands, and like the river seen 
in the \asion of the prophet, which nourished all along its banks trees 
whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, the well-spring of all its 
influences should be a spot consecrated by rehgion. In prayer, and in 
praise to the Giver of all good, and the Author of aU being. — in song, and 
hymn and anthem, and in addresses, from those whose position in society 
will command the Mghest respect for any object in whose behalf they 
may speak, and in the presence of all classes of the community, of pupils, 
and teachers, of fathers and mothers, of the old and young, — the school- 
house should be set apart to the sacred purpose of the physical, intellec- 
tual and moral culture of the children who will be gathered within its 
walls. We rejoice to see that these occasions are thus improved, and that 
80 many of our most distinguished teachers, scholars and statesmen take 
part in the exercises. We have before us a large number of addresses, at 
once eloquent and practical, which have been delivered at the opening of 
new school-houses, and we shall select a tew. not for their superiority to the 
rest, but as specimens of tlie manner in which topics appropriate to the 
occasion are introduced, and as fitting testimony to the importance of 
School Architecture. 

School Celebration at Salem, Mass. 

On the first of March, 1842, the occasion of occupying several new 
school-houses, was marked by a variety of interesting exercises, an ac- 
count of which will be found in the Common School Journal for that year. 
We copy the addresses of Mr. George B. Emerson, and of G. F. Thayer. 

Mr. Emerson said, — 

" I congratulate you, my young friends, on this happy event. This 
pleasant day is like a smile of Heaven upon this occasion ; and I believe 
Heaven always smiles on events hke tliis. ^^lany of us whom you see 
here have come from a distance, on the invitation of your excellent frieiid 
the Mayor, to show the interest which we feel in you. and in what has been 
done here for your improvement. We have taken great pleasure in look- 
ing over the buildings prepared for your use, the admirable arrangements 
and apparatus, so much superior to what is usually enjoyed by children 
in your position. We have been pleased to hear of the faithful teachers 
that are provided for you, and the excellent plan of your studies, and the 
excellent regulations. 

Your fathers and friends have spared no pains to furnish you with all 
the best means and opportunities for learning. They now look to you to 
do your part. All that they have done will be of no avail, unless you 
are excited to exert yourselves, — to prove yourselves worthy of these 
great advantages. 

I was gratified, in looking over the regulations, to see the course marked 
out for you. — to see the stress laid upon the great substantials of a good 
education, — to see the prominent place given^o that most useful art, that 



DEDICATOR V EXERCISES AT SA^iSM. 157 

most graceful accomplishment, reading. You cannot, my young friendg, 
realize the great and manifold advantages of gaining, now, in the be^in- 
nin^ of your life, familiarly and perfectly, the single power of reading 
distinctly, naturally, intelligently, with taste and interest, — and of acquir- 
ing a love for reading. There is no situation in life, in which it will not 
prove to you a source of the purest pleasure and highest improvement. 

For many years, and many times in a year, I have passed by the shop 
of a diligent, industrious mechanic, whom 1 have often seen busy at his 
trade, with his arms bare, hard at work. His industry and steadiness 
have been successful, and he has gained a competency. But he still re- 
mains wisely devoted to his trade. During the day, you may see him at 
his work, or chatting with his neighbors. At night, he sits down in his 
parlor, by his quiet fireside, and enjoys the company of his friends. And 
he has the most extraordinary collection of friends that any man in New 
England can boast of William H. Prescott goes out from Boston, and 
talks with him about Ferdinand and Isabella. Washington Irving comes 
from New York, and tells him the story of the wars of Grenada, and the 
adventurous voyage of Columbus, or the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, or 
the tale of the Broken Heart. George Bancroft sits down with him, and 
points out on a map, the colonies and settlements of America, their cir- 
cumstances and fates, and gives him the early history of liberty. Jared 
Sparks comes down from Cambridge, and reads to him the letters of 
Washington, and makes his heart glow with the heroic deeds of that god- 
like man for the cause of his country. Or, if he is in the mood for poetry, 
his neighbor Washington Allston, the great painter, steps in and tells 
him a story, — and nobody tells a story so well, — or repeats to him lines of 
poetry. Bryant comes, with his sweet wood-notes, which he learnt 
among the green hills of Berkshire. And Richard H. Dana, father and 
son, come, the one to repeat grave, heart-stirring poetry, the other to 
speak of his two years before the mast. Or, if this mechanic is in a spec- 
ulative mood, Professor Hitchcock comes to talk to him of all the changes 
that have befallen the soil of Massachusetts, since the flood and before ; 
or Professor Espy tries to show him how to predict a storm. Nor is his 
acquaintance confined to his own country. In his graver hours, he sends 
for Sir John Herschel from across the ocean, and he comes and sits down 
and discourses eloquently upon the wonders of the vast creation, — of all 
the worlds that are poured upon our sight by the glory of a starry night 
Nor is* it across the stormy ocean of blue waves alone that his friends 
come to visit him ; but across the darker and wider ocean of time, come the 
wise and the good, the eloquent and the witty, and sit down by his table, 
and discourse with him as long as he wishes to hsten. That eloquent 
blind old man of Scio, with beard descending to his girdle, still blind, but 
still eloquent, sits down with him ; and, as he sang almost three thousand 
years ago among the Grecian isles, sings the war of Troy or the wan- 
derings of the sage Ulysses. The poet of the human heart comes from 
the banks of Avon, and the poet of Paradise from his small garden-house 
in Westminster ; Burns from his cottage on the Ayr, and Scott from his 
dwelling by the Tweed ; — and, any time these three years past, may 
have been seen by his fireside a man who ought to be a hero with school- 
boys, for no one ever so felt for them ; a man v/hom so many of your 
neighbors in Boston lately strove in vain to see, — Charles Dickens. In 
the midst of such friends, our friend the leather-dresser lives a happy and 
respected life, not less respected, and far more happy, than if an uneasy 
ambition had made him a representative in Congress, or a governor of a 
State ; and the more respected and happy that he disdains not to labor 
daily in his honorable calling. 

My young friends, this is no fancy sketch. Many who hear me know 
as well as 1 do, Thomas Dowse, the leather-dresser of Cambridgeport, 



^53 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

and many have seen nis choice and beautiful Hbrarr. But I suppose 
there is no one here who knows a neighbor of his. who had in his early 
years the same advantages, but who did not improve them •. — who never 
gained this love of readiiig. and who now. in consequence, instead of Uv- 
ing this happy and desirable life, wastes his evenings in low company at 
taverns, or dozes them away by his own fire. Which of these lives will 
you cho<3se to lead ? They are both before you- 

Some of you. perhaps, are looking forward to the life of a farmer. — a 
very happy life, if it be well spenL^ On the southern side of a gently 
sloping hill in Xatick not far from the place where may be still standing 
the last wigwam of the tribe of Indians of that name, in a comfortable 
farm-house, hves a man whom I sometimes go to see. I find him with 
his farmer's fi^ck on. sometimes at the plough-taiL sometimes handling 
the hoe or the axe : and I never shake his hand heirdened by honorable 
toil, without wishing that I could harden my own poor hands by his side 
in the seime respectable employment, I go out to look with him at trees, 
and to talk about them : for he is a lover of trees, and so am I ; and he is 
not unwil li ng, when I come, to leave his work for a stroll in the woods. 
He long ago learnt the language of plants, and they have told him their 
history cind their uses. He. again, is a reader, and has coUecied about 
him a set of fi-iends. not so numerous as our friend Dowse, nor of just the 
same character, but a goodly number of very entertaining and instructive 
ones : and he finds time every day to enjoy their company. His winter 
evenings he spends with them, and in repeating experiments which the 
chemists and philosophers have made. He leads a happy life. Time 
never hangs heavy on his hands. For such a man we have an involun- 
tary' respecL 

On the other side of Boston, down by the coast Uved. a few years ago, 
a farmer o^ a far different character. He had been what is called fortu- 
nate in business. Eind had a beautiful farm and garden in the country, and 
a house in town. Chancing to pass by his place, some four or five' years 
ago. I stopped to see him. And I could not but congratulate him on* hav- 
ing so delightnil a place to spend his summers in. But he frankly con- 
fessed that he was heartily tired of it. and that he longed to go back to 
Boston. I found that he knew nothing about his trees, of which he had 
many fine ones. — for it was an old place he had bought — nor of the plants 
in his garden. He had no books, and no taiste for them. Hjs time hung 
like a burden on him. He enjoyed neither his leisure nor his wealth. It 
would have been a blessing to him if he could have been obliged to ex- 
change places with his hired men. and dig in his garden for his gardener, 
or plough the field for his ploughmam. He went from country to town 
and from town to country-, and died, at last weary and sick of life. Yet 
he was a kind man. and might have been a happy one but for a single 
misfortune ; he had not learned to enjoy reading. 'The love of reading is 
a blessing in any pursuit in any course of lile :— not less to the merchant 
and sailor than to the mechanic and farmer. What was it but a love of 
reading which made of a merchant's apprentice, a man whom many of 
you have seen and all have heard of. the truly great and learned 
Bowditch ? 

Our friends the young ladies may not think this which I have said 
exactly suited to them. But to you, my young friends, even more than 
to your brothers, it is important now to acquirer talent for reading well, 
and a taste for reading. I say more important, for. looking forward to 
the future, you will need it more than they. They are more independent 
of this resource They have their shops, and farms, and counting-houses 
to go to. They are daily on change. They go abroad on the ocean. 
The sphere of woman, her place of honor, is home, her own fireside, the 
cares of her ovm family. A well-educated womcm is a sun in this sphere, 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEM. 159 

ehedding around her the Hght of intelligence, the warmth of love and 
happiness. 

And by a well-educated woman I do not mean merely one who has ac- 
quired ancient and foreign languages, or curious or striking accomplish- 
ments. I mean a woman who, having left school with a firmly-fixed love 
of reading, has employed the golden leisure of her youth in reading the 
best English books, such as shall prepare her for her duties. All the best 
books ever written are in English, either original or translated ; and in 
this richest and best literature of the world she may find enough to pre- 
pare her for all the duties and relations of life. The mere talent of read- 
ing well, simply, gracefully, — what a beautiful accompHshment it is in 
woman ! How many weary and otherwise heavy hours have I had 
charmed into pleasure by this talent in a female friend. But I si^eak of 
the higher acquisition, the natural and usual consequence of this, a taste 
for reading. This will give a woman a world of resources. 

It gives her the oracles of God. These will be ever near her ; — nearest 
to her hand when she wakes, and last from her hand when she retires to 
sleep. And what stores of wisdom, for this world and for a higher, will 
she gain from this volume ! This will enable her to form her own char- 
acter and the hearts of her children. Almost every distinguished man 
has confessed his obligations to his mother. To her is committed the 
whole formation of the character, — mind, heart, and body, at the most 
important period of life. How necessary, then, is it that she should pos- 
sess a knowledge of the laws of the body and the mind ! and how can 
she get it but by reading ? If you gain only this, what an unspeakable 
blessing will your education be to you ! 

I need not, my young friends, speak of the other acquisitions you may 
make. — of writing, which places friends in the remotest parts of the world 
side by side,— or of calculation, the very basis of justice and honesty. 

The acquisitions you may make will depend chiefly on yourselves. 
You will find your teachers ready to lead you on to higher studies when- 
ever you are prepared to go. 

These excellent establishments are emphatically yours. They are 
raised for your good ; and, as we your seniors pass away, — and in a few 
years we shall have passed, — these buildings will become your property, 
and your children will fill the seats you now occupy. Consider them 
yours, then, to enjoy and profit by, but not yours to waste. Let it be 
your pride to preserve them uninjured, unmarred by the mischievous 
knives and pencils of vulgar children. Unite for this purpose. Consider 
an injury done to these buildings as an injury done to yourselves. 

There is another thing which will depend on you, of more importance 
than any I have spoken of. I mean the tone of character which shall 
prevail in these schools. Your teachers will be happy to treat you as 
high-minded and generous children. Show that you can be so treated ; 
that you are such. 

Let me congratulate you upon the happy auspices of the name of him 
under whom, with the zealous co-operation of enlightened and patriotic 
associates, this momentous change in your school system has been 
effected, — a name which is borne by the oldest and best school in New 
Hampshire, and by one of the oldest and best in Massachusetts. It will 
depend upon you, my friends, to make the schools of Salem, equally, or 
still more distinguished, among those of the State." 

Mr. Thayer said, — 

Children : I did not expect that I should have the privilege of address- 
ing you, on this most joyful occasion ; for it was not till I met your re- 
epected Mayor, an hour ago, at the beautiful school-house we have just 



170 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

left, that I received an invitation to do so. You will not therefore; antici- 
pate a studied discourse, or any thing particularly interesting. Devoted, 
however, as my Ute is. and has long been, to the instruction and guidance 
of the young in no inconsiderable numbers, I shall, without further pre- 
face, imagine myself in the midst of my own school, and talk familiarly to 
you as I would, and do. to them. 

And allow me to add my congratulations to those of your other friends, 
for the ample, beautiful, and convenient arrangements that have been 
made for you, in the school-houses of this city ; and especially in the new 
one we have just examined. I can assure you. it is superior in almost 
every respect to any pubhc school-house in New England, if not in the 
United States. It, with others in the city, has cost your fathers and 
friends a great deal of money, which they have cheerfully expended as a 
means of maldng you wise and good. But you have incurred a great 
debt to them, which you can never repay while you are children, but 
must endeavor to do it to your children, when you shall become men and 
women, and take the place of your parents in the world. But belbre that 
period, you can do something. Now, immediately on entering upon the 
enjoyment of the precious privileges extended to you. you can acknowl- 
edge the debt, evince the gratitude you feel, not by words, but deeds; — 
by, (to use an expression well understood by all children.) 'being good? 
Yes. — by • being good and doing good ;' — by obedience to parents and 
teachers ; by kindness to brothers and sisters, and all your young friends 
and companions: by fidehty in duty, at home and at school ; by the prac- 
tice of honesty and truth at all times : by refraining from the use of pro- 
fane and indecent language ; by keeping the mind and heart free from 
ever}^ thing impure. These are the means in your own hands. Fail not 
to use them ; and although they will in fact be merely an acknowledg- 
ment of your obhgation for the boon you possess, your friends will con- 
sider themselves well repaid for all they have done for you. It is from 
such conduct that the teacher's, as well as the father's, richest reward 
and highest satisfaction are derived. To see the beloved objects of our 
care and instruction appreciating our labors, and improving in all that is 
good and useful, under our management, affords the greatest happiness, 
hghtens the hea\y load of toil, relieves the aching head, and revives tha 
fainting spirit. 

There is, however, one great danger to which you. — to which aU the 
young. — are especially exposed. I mean the influence of bad example. 
Example is omnipotent. Its force is irresistible to most minds. We are 
all swayed more or less, by others. Others are swayed by us. And this 
process is continually going on. even though we are entirely unconscious 
of it ourselves. Hence we see the importance of choosing good com- 
panions, and flying from the bad. Unless tliis is done, it will be in vain 
for your friends to give you wise counsel, or for you to form good resolu- 
tions. ' Who can touch pitch and be clean V You will resemble those 
with whom you associate. You will catch their words, their manners, 
tlieir habits. Are they pure, you will be pure. Are they depraved, they 
will corrupt you. Be it a rule with you. then, to avoid those who are ad- 
dicted to practices that you would be unwiUing your most respected 
friends should know, and regulate your owm conduct by the sama 
standard. 

I would particularly caution you against beginnings. It is \hQ first step 
that is the dangerous one ; since it is obvious that, if you were to ascend 
the highest mountain, it could only be done by a step at a time, and if the 
first were not taken, the summit could never be reached. But. one suc- 
cessfully accomphshed. the next follows as a matter of course. And 
equally and fatally sure is the dmcnward track to crime and misery ! If 
we suffer ourselves to be drawn in that direction, what human power can 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEiM. 171 

Bave us from destruction ? This danger, too, is increased by the feeling 
of security we indulge, when we say, ' It is only a little thing ; we shall 
never commit any great fault ;' — not remembering that nothing stands 
still in hfe, in charticter, any more than in the material universe. We 
must be going forward or backward ; up, towards improvement and 
glory, — or down, towards infamy and woe ! Every thing accumulates, 
according to its land ; though it begins small, like the snowball you hold in 
your hand, it becomes, as you roll it on the ground before you, larger at 
every revolution, till, at last, it is beyond your power to move it at all. 

I v/ill illustrate this by a sad case which has recently occurred in Bos- 
ton. But first, I wish to interest you in something of an agreeable nature, 
in connection with the faithful performance of duty. 

I have spoken of some things that you should do, to show your sense of 
the benefits which have been conferred upon you, and I should like to 
dwell on each one of them separately ; but I shall have time only to speak 
of one. It is, however, among the most important. I allude to speaking 
tlie truth, — the most substantial foundation of moral character. It has in- 
numerable advantages, one of which is strikingly exhibited in the fol- 
lowing story : — 

Petrarch, an eminent Italian poet, who lived about five hundred years 
ago, secured the confidence and friendship of Cardinal Colonna, in whose 
family he resided in his youth, by his candor and strict regard to truth. 

A violent quarrel had occurred in the family of this nobleman, which 
was carried so far, that resort was had to arms. The cardinal wished to 
know the foundation of the affair ; and, calling all his people before him, 
he required each one to bind himself by a solemn oath, on the Gospels, to 
declare the whole truth. None were exempt. Even the cardinal's 
brother submitted to it. Petrarch, in his turn, presenting himself to take 
the oath, the cardinal closed the book, and said, ' As for you, Petrarch, 
your WORD is sufficient P 

What more delightful reward could have been presented to the feelingg 
of the noble youth than this, from his friend, his master, and one of the 
highest dignitaries of the church? Nothing but the peaceful whispers of 
his own conscience, or the approbation of his Maker, could have given 
him more heart-felt satisfaction. Who among you would not be a 
Petrarch ? and, in this respect, which of you could not ? 

While, then, I would hold up for imitation this beautiful example, I 
would present a contrast as a warning to you. 

There is now confined in the Boston jail a boy of fourteen years of age, 
who, for the previous six years, had been sinking deeper and deeper into 
vice and crime, until last October, when he was convicted, and sentenced 
to two years' confinement within the cold damp cell of a gloomy prison, 
for aggravated theft. In his own written account of his life, which I have 
seen, he says that he began his wretched course by playing truant from 
school. His second step was lying; to conceal it. Idle, and destitute of 
any fixed purpose, he fell in company with others, guilty like himself, of 
whom he learned to steal, and to use indecent and profane language. He 
sought the worst boys he could find. He became a gambler, a frequenter 
of the circus and the theatre, and engaged in various other corrupt and 
sinful practices. At length, becoming bold in his dishonesty, he robbed 
the post-office of letters containing very considerable sums of money, and 
was soon detected and condemned. If you were to visit that abode of 
misery, you might often see the boy's broken-hearted mother, weeping, 
and sobbing, and groaning, at the iron grating of his solitary ceil, as if 
she would sink on the flinty floor, and die ! ' And aU this,' (to use the 
boy's own words,) 'comes from playing truant!' 

Look, then, my young friends, on these two pictures, — both taken from 
life. — and tell me which you like best ; and which of the two characters 



172 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

you propose to imitate. Will you be young Petrarchs. or will you adopt 
the course of the unfortunate boy in Boston jail 1 They are both before 
you. If you would be Hke the former, begin right. Resist temptation 
to AVTong-doing. with all your might. Let no one entice you from the 
way which conscience points out. 

Dedication of the Public High School in Cambridge, Mass. 

After appropriate introductory addresses by the School Committee 
and Mayor of Cambridge. Hon. Edward Everett. President of Harvard 
College, responded to an invitation to address the audience, as follows : — 

May it please your Honor : — 

Connected as I am with another place of education, of a kind which is 
commoaly regarded as of a higher order, it is precisely in that connection. 
that I learn to feel and appreciate the importance of good schools. I am 
not so ignorant of the history of our fathers, as not to know, that the 
spirit, which founded and fostered Harvard College, is the spirit which 
has founded and upheld and will continue to support and cherish the 
schools of New England. I know well. sir. that Universities and Col- 
leges can neither flourish nor even stand alone. You might as well 
attempt to build your second and tliird stories in the air. without a first 
floor or abasement, as to have collegiate institutions without good schools 
for preparatory education, and for the diffusion of general information 
throughout the community. If the day should ever come, wliich I do not 
fear in our beloved country, when this general education shall be neg- 
lected and these preparatory institutions allowed to perish : — if the day 
should ever come (of which I have no apprehension) when the schools of 
New England shall go down, depend upon it. sir. the colleges will go 
with them. It wiU be with them, as it was with the granite warehouses, 
the day before yesterday in Federal street, in Boston ; if the piers at the 
foundation give way, the upper stories wiU come down in one undistin- 
guished ruin. 

I anticipate no such disaster. Mr. Mayor, though it must be admitted 
that we live in an age of revolutions, of which every steamer brings us 
some fresh and astonishing account. But our revolutions are of a more 
auspicious character, and it occurred to me as I was coming down with 
your worthy associate (Mr. "Whitney.) and your respected predecessor 
(Mr. Green.) to whom we have just listened with so much pleasure, that 
we were traversing a region, in which a more important revolution com- 
menced no xevY long time since, and is still in progress. — far more impor- 
tant for us and" our children. — than any of those which have lately con- 
vulsed tlie continent of Europe. I do not now refer to the great politi- 
cal and historical events of which this neighborhood was the theatre : of 
which the monuments are in sight from these windows, but to a revolu- 
tion quiet and silent in its origin and progress, unostentatious in outward 
manifestations, but imparting greater cTiange and warranting brighter 
hopes for most of those who hear me. — for our young friends before us. — 
than any of the most startling events that stare upon us m capitals in the 
columns of the newspapers, after every arrival from Europe. The Rev- 
erend Mr. Stearns has beautifully sketched some of the most important 
features of this peaceful revolution. 

"When I entered college. Mr. Mayor, (and I beheve I shall not tell the 
audience quite how many years ago that is ; you can do it, sir, but I will 
thank you not to.) there were a few straggling houses, shops, and taverns 
along the Main street at Cambridgeport. All back of this street to the 
north, and I believe almost all south of it to the river, — the entire district 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. I73 

in the centre of which we are now assembled, was in a state of nature; 
pretty equally divided between barren pasturage, salt-marsh, and what I 
must admit had no mean attraction for us freshmen, whortleberry swamp. 
Not one of the high roads had been cut, which now traverse the plain 
between Main street and the old road to Charlestown. East Cambridge 
did not exist even in the surveyor's imagination. There was not a church 
nor a public school east of Dr. Holmes' and Old Cambridge Common; 
and if any one had prophesied that Avithin forty years a population like 
this would cover the soil, — with its streets and houses, and gardens, its 
numerous school-houses and churches, its conservatories breathing all the 
sweets of the tropics, its private libraries equal to the choicest in the land, 
and all the other appendages of a high civilization, he would have been 
set down as a visionary indeed. But this change, this revolution has 
taken place even within the life time of the venerable lady (Mrs. Mer- 
riam) introduced to us in such a pleasing manner by Mr. Stearns; and 
we are assembled this morning to take a respectful notice of what may 
be called its crowning incident, the opening of a High School in that 

Frimitive whortleberry swamp. I believe I do not over-state matters when 
say, that no more important event than this is likely to occur, in the 
course of the livc-s of many of those here assembled. As far as our in- 
terests are concerned, all the revolutions in Europe multiplied tenfold are 
nothing to it. No, sir. not if the north were again to pour forth its myri- 
ads on central and southern EuKope and break up the existing govern- 
ments and states into one general wreck, it would not be an article of in- 
telligence at all so important to us as the opening of a new school. No, 
my young friends, this is a day which may give an auspicious turn to your 
whole career in life ; may affect your best interests not merely for time 
but for eternity. 

There is certainly nothing in which the rapid progress of the country is 
more distinctly marked than its schools. It is not merely their multipli- 
cation in numbers, but their improvement as places of education. A 
school forty years ago was a very different affair from what it is now. 
The meaning of the word is changed. A httle reading, writing, and 
ciphering, a very little grammar ; and for those destined for college, a 
little Latin and Greek, very indifferently taught, were all we got at a 
common town school in my day. The range was narrow ; the instruc- 
tion superficial. In our modern school system, taking it as a whole com- 
posed of its several parts in due gradation, — viz. the primary, the district, 
and the High School, — the fortunate pupil not only enjoys a very 
thorough course of instruction in the elementary branches, but gets a 
good foundation in French, a good preparation for college, if he desires it, 
according to the present advanced standard of requirement ; a general 
acquamtance with the applied mathematics, the elements of natural phi- 
losophy, some suitable information as to the form of government and 
political system under which we live, and no inconsiderable practice in 
the noble arts of writing and speaking our mother tongue. 

It might seem, at first, that this is too wide a circle for a school. But 
the experience of our well conducted schools has abundantly shown that 
It is not too extensive. With faithful and competent teachers and wil- 
ling and hearty learners, all the branches I have named and others I have 
passed over can be attended to with advantage, between the ages of four 
and sixteen. 

Such being the case, our School Committees have done no more than 
their duty, in prescribing this extensive course and furnishing to master 
and pupils the means of pursuing it. I cannot tell you, sir, how much I 
have been gratified at hastily looking into the alcove behind us. As I 
stepped into it this morning, Mr. Smith, the intelligent master of the 
Bchool, pointed out to me the beautiful electrical machme behind the door 



174 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

with the just remark that my venerable predecessor. President Dunster, 
would not have knoTrn what it was. No. sir. nor would the most eminent 
philosopher in the world before the time of Franklin. Lord Bacon would 
not have known what it was. nor Sir Isaac Xewton. Mr. Smith reminded 
me of the notion of Cotton Mather (one of the most learned men of his 
day.) that hghtning proceeded from the Prince of the Power of the Air, 
by which he accounted for the fact that it was so apt to strike the spires 
of churches. Cotton Mather would have come nearer the truth, if he had 
called it a shining manifestation of tlie power and skill, by which the 
Great Author of The Universe works out some of the mighty miracles of 
creation and nature. And only think, sir. that these newly discovered 
mysteries of the material world, unknown to the profoundest sages of 
elder days, are so effectually brought down to the reach of common 
schools in our day. that these young friends, before they are finally dis- 
missed from these walls, will be made acquainted with not a few of the 
wonderful properties of the subtle element, evolved and condensed by that 
machine, and which recent science has taught to be but different forms of 
one principle, whether it flame across the heavens in the midnight storm. 
or guide the mariner across the pathless ocean ; — or leap from city to city 
across the continent as swiftly as the thought of which it is the vehicle ; 
and which I almost venture" to predict, before some here present shall 
taste of death, will, by some still more sublime generalization, be identi- 
fied with the yet hidden principle which thrills through the ner\-es of ani- 
mated beings, and binds life to matter, by the ties of sensation. 

But while you do well. sir. in your High School to make provision for 
these advanced studies. I know that as long as it remains under your in- 
struction, the plain elementary- branches will not be under%-alued. There 
is perhaps a tendency in that direction in some of our modern schools : I 
venture to hope it will not be encouraged here. I know it is not to be 
the pro%-ince of this school to teach the elements : but I am sure you will 
show that you entertain sound views of their importance. I hold, sir, 
that to read the English language well, that is with intelligence, feeling, 
spirit, and effect ;— to write with dispatch, a neat, handsome, legible hand, 
(for it is after all. a great object in writing to have others able to read 
what you write.) and to be master of the four rules of arithmetic, so as 
to dispose at once with accuracy of every question of figures which comes 
up in practical life : — I say I call this a good education ; and if you add 
the ability to write pure grammatical English, with the help of very few 
hard words. I regard it as an excellent education. These are the tools ; 
you can do much with them, but you are helpless without them. They 
are the tbundation ; and unless you begin with these, all your flashy at- 
tainments, a httle natural philosophy, and a little mental philosophy, a 
little physiologv and a little geoiogj^ and all the other ologiesand osophies, 
are but ostentatious rubbish. 

There is certainly no country in the world in which so much money is 
paid for schooling as in ours. This can be proved by figures. I beheve 
there is no country where the common schools are so good. But they 
may be improved. It is not enough to erect commodious school-houses ; 
or compensate able teachers, and then leave them, masters and pupils, to 
themselves. A school is not a clock which you can wind up and then 
leave it to go of itself It is an organized living body : it has sensibiU- 
ties ; it craves sympathy. You must not leave the School Committee to 
do all the work. Your teachers want the active countenance of the whole 
body of parents, of the whole inlelhgent community. I am sure you. Mr. 
Smith, would gladly put up with a little injudicious interference in single 
cases, if you could have the active sympathies of the whole body of 
parents to fall back upon in delicate and dificult cases, and to support and 
cheer you under the burthen of your labors, from day to day. I think 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. I75 

this matter deserves more attention than it has received ; and if so small 
a number as thirty parents would agree together, to come to the school, 
some one of them, each in his turn, but once a month, or rather if but 25 
or 26 would do it, it would give your teacher the support and countenance 
of a parent's presence every day; at a cost to each individual of ten or 
eleven days in the year. Would not the good to be effected be worth the 
sacrifice ? 

I have already spoken too long, Mr. Mayor, and will allude to but one 
other topic. In most things, as I have said, connected with education, we 
are incalculably in advance of other days: — in some, perhaps, we have 
fallen below their standard. I know, sir, old men are apt to make unfa- 
vorable contrasts between the present time and the past ; and if I do not 
soon begin to place myself in that class, others will do it for me. But I 
really think that in some things, belonging, perhaps, it will be thought, to 
the minor morals, the present promising generation of youth might learn 
something of their grandfathers, if not their fathers. When I first went 
to a village school, sir, I remember it as yesterday ; — I seem still to hold 
by one hand for protection, (I was of the valiant age of three years) to 
an elder sister's apron ; — with the other I grasped my primer, a volume 
of about two and a half inches in length, which formed then the sum total 
of my library, and which had lost the blue paper cover from one corner, 
(my first misfortune in life ;) I say it was the practice then, as we were 
trudging along to school, to draw up by the road-side, if a traveller, a 
stranger, or a person in years, passed along, " and make our manners," as 
it was called. The little girls courtesied, the boys made a bow; it was not 
done with much grace, I suppose : but there was a civility and decency 
about it; which did the children good, and produced a pleasing impression 
on those who witnessed it. The age of village chivalry is past, never to 
return. These manners belong to a forgotten order of things. They are 
too precise and rigorous for this enlightened age. I sometimes fear the 
pendulum has swung too far in the opposite extreme. Last winter I was 
driving into town in a carriage closed behind, but open in front. There 
was in company with me, the Rev. President Woods, of Bowdoin Col- 
lege, Maine, and that distinguished philanthropist and excellent citizen, 
Mr. Amos Lawrence. Well, sir, we happened to pass a school-house^ 
just as the boys (to use the common expression) were "let out." I sup- 
pose the little men had just been taught within doors something about the 
laws, which regulate the course of projectiles, and determine the curves 
in which they move. Intent on a practical demonstration, and tempted 
by the convenient material, I must say they put in motion a quantity Oi 
spherical bodies, in the shape of snow balls, which brought the doctrine 
quite home to us wayfarers, and made it wonderful that we got off with 
no serious inconvenience, which was happily the case. This I thought 
was an instance of free and easy manners, verging to the opposite ex- 
treme of the old fashioned courtesy, which I have just described. I am 
quite sure that the boys of this school would be the last to indulge an ex- 
periment attended with so much risk to the heads of innocent third 
persons. 

Nothing remains, sir, but to add my best wishes for teachers and pu- 
pils ; — You are both commencing under the happiest auspices. When 1 
consider that there is not one of you, my young friends, who does not en- 
joy gratuitously the opportunity of obtaining a better school education, 
than we could have bought, Mr. Mayor, when we were boys, with the 
wealth of the Indies, I cannot but think that each one of you, boys and 
girls, will be ready to say with grateful hearts, the hues have fallen to 
me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 



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